


Why Mr. Nelson, I'm Blushing

by Emanationman



Category: Daredevil (TV), Iron Fist (2017), Iron Fist (TV), Jessica Jones (TV), Luke Cage (TV), The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: BAMF Claire Temple, Don't Judge Me, First Dates, Foot in mouth syndrome, Lawyer Foggy does things to me, Light Angst, Light Smut, M/M, Misunderstandings, Seriously this was supposed to be a ficlet, THE SMUT IS COMING I SWEAR, Ward must be protected, Where the hell did this plot come from
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-10-07 02:25:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 30,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10350336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emanationman/pseuds/Emanationman
Summary: Foggy was getting so fired. He done did bad.A.K.A. The fic where Ward Meachum falls inlurve, Foggy follows him and New York's second finest Heroes, save the world.





	1. First Impressions

**Author's Note:**

> First fic since 2009! Unbeta'd and Semi revised. I just really like Ward. Rating will probably change as we go along.

Foggy was going to be so fired. Hogarth was going to fire him, then sue him, then probably will him out of existence with the power of her stare alone. He was going to be so out of a job he might actually become a butcher just to have access to regular food when Jeri was done with him. 

You see, Foggy was an idiot. Nevermind that he graduated nearish the top of his class, it was painfully obvious that you couldn’t unlearn bad decision making. Apparently it took so little effort to actually collapse his life this time, it made last time look like a marathon. 

Of course Foggy didn’t wake up this morning with the intention of ruining all the things. He'd actually woken up pretty psyched. 

It had taken almost a year to feel Hogarth out when it came to his clients. Right at the start it became clear that Foggy's unique viewpoint on certain clientele was not going to be the common occurrence he thought it would be. In fact he had had all of _no contact with any 'empowered' clients._

So when Hogarth summoned him last week to begin reviewing a massive amount of all new contracts belonging to Rand Industries, his spine got all a-tingle. This was it, he was earning some respect, he was proving he could be more than a voice box with a tie. 

They sat in her office just finishing up for the night when she spoke up. “I want everything to be in as much order as possible for the coming months while Mr. Rand is, away.”

“Of course. I’m sure you’re all set for the morning, Mr. Rand is all signed away, so I can messenger the rest to Mr. And Ms. Meachum by then.” He answered standing to pick up the packets, checking his watch, hoping to make it to the messengers before 9pm.

“No.” She caught his attention. “You’ll be going tomorrow.”

He froze, catching her unblinking gaze, “Pardon?” 

“I’ve decided to assign you Rand.” She sat calmly, as she stared him down.

“Oh I, really?” he asked rumbly.

“You’ll have help obviously, pick your team from anywhere, but you’ll be in charge of the account from now on.”

“This is a billion dollar company.” He answered, because Foggy apparently is just the worst.

“I’m well aware of that, thank you.” She stood and stepped to the wall of windows. “My investment in Rand Industries was in Danny. Now that he’s decided to take a step back from it, I have very little desire to be as involved as well.”

“I see. Um, well thank you, I know how much Danny means to you.”

This caught her attention, she turned eyebrow raised, the smallest frown on her face “What do you mean?

“All I know is you’ve never made pick up a clay bowl from any other client at two in the morning, and I think I caught you smiling at him once… ma’am.”

“Hmm,” she looked away again, light blush on her cheeks. “Either way, you’ll be the company's go to. Be ready.”

“Of course, thank you, again. I know the whole reason you brought me on has been somewhat moot, what with no new supers in New York lately-“

Hogarth then did something that he should have taken as a huge red flag slapping against his face; she laughed. Out loud and everything. 

He stopped and stared.

“Yes well, I think you'll be a perfect fit at Rand. Go home, Mr. Nelson, you have a big day tomorrow.” She said taking her seat again. What she meant, he had no idea, but he was taking the win and running.

“Yes ma’am, have a good night.”

 

The next morning was a study in faking it til you made it. He was sat in a conference room readying the contracts on the table before his meeting with Mr. and Ms. Meachum. 

He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, pulled it out and paused, Karen Page, flashed silently. It’d been months since he last spoke to her. In fact the last time was to ask about Danny Rand just before she published her Rand Pharmaceutical piece. He obviously couldn’t say anything but it had been nice to hear her voice all the same. He swiped his thumb across the screen.

“Well well well, if it isn’t the famous Karen Page.” 

“Hello to you too, Foggy, smartass.” She giggled anyway.

“To What I owe this pleasure Ms. Page?”

“Is it true you’re working for Rand exclusively now?” God he missed Karen’s bluntness, he missed her.

“How the hell- it’s literally only been ten minutes! How did-“ he spotted a tall man through the glass approaching the conference room.

“Please, don’t insult me, Fogs. So it’s true? Foggy there’s something you need to know about Rand, about Danny-“

“I’m sorry Karen I gotta go, I’ll call you back, I’m sorry!”

“Foggy wai-“ 

He stuffed the phone away and stood just as the doors opened. 

Mr. Meachum was a tall man, intimidatingly put together, and handsome as all get out, just your average millionaire company president. He had a stone hard face that said he preferred peanut brittle to cookies, at least to Foggy, and a body that said he hadn’t tasted sugar in his entire life.

“Pleasure to meet you Mr. Meachum, Franklin Nelson. Thank you for meeting with me this morning.” He shook Mr. Meachum's hand, which was surprisingly callused. 

“Not a problem, Mr. Nelson Thank you. Please take a seat.” Meachum moved to sit adjacently and took out a pen. 

“Will Ms. Meachum be joining us as well?” Foggy asked, taking a seat and picking up the first of many packets sliding it towards Meachum. “Sign under the yellow tabs, sir, and initial under the red.”

“No unfortunately she had an engagement in China.” His voice was a deep rumble as he signed. He bent his head, a stray lock of hair falling forward. He was a careful signer, double and triple checking the tab placement and with a surprisingly elegant loopy signature. 

Foggy as a lawyer tended to notice signatures as a unique tell about people. They were often so subconscious they told a lot about a person. Meachum had to have practiced his signature hundreds of times for it to be that exact every time.

“Oh, I wasn’t aware, would you like me to return again another day? These contracts can wait until she returns. I'd hate to waste your morning.” 

“It’s fine I’ve spent mornings with worse company.” Meachum delivered dryly as he continued signing, which was helpful because Foggy could feel his face warm.

They continued through the dozen and a half contracts the rest of the morning as Foggy explained and answered Meachum's questions. 

He was, if nothing else, an okay guy. A semi-permanent frown broken now and again by a crack and a smirk. Realizing the man had an obscure but none the less there, dry sense of humor that was more self deprecating than not, was a pleasant surprise.

They managed to finish up by the time Eleven rolled around. “I’ll have these ready again for Ms. Meachum when she returns, but in the mean time are there any other questions I can answer for you, sir?” 

Mr. Meachum stood and paused for just a second, “no, I, I think that’s everything. Thank you, Mr. Nelson. Please excuse me.” He pulled his vibrating phone from his jacket pocket and tapped the screen.

Foggy nodded and Meachum stepped out, the glass door closing silently behind him. Foggy sighed with relief. He’d done it, he made it through the meeting without making a doof out of himself. 

Piling up the packets and returning them to the box He'd brought them in, he felt his phone vibrate a second time that morning. To his surprise Marci's name flashed on screen.

“Marci? What’s wrong is everything okay?”

“Take it down a notch, Foggy, this is a social call.”

“Oh it is, is it?”

“Yes, I felt like we don’t communicate as much as I’d like.”

“Oh really?” Foggy smiled as he turned to the Windows and looked out at the city. 

“Yes, really. You are one of my oldest and dearest acquaintances-“

“Wow, really?”

“Dearest close acquaintance, and I…. Ah fuck it, what’s Rand Industries like? Have you met Danny Rand?”

“You’re all vultures, the lot of you.”

“What’s he like? Is he as dirty a hippie as They say?” she continued undeterred. He sighed.

“No, Marci, I did not meet with Mr. Rand, I met with Mr. Meachum, so you’ll just have to get your gossipy jollies elsewhere.”

“Mr. Meachum? Oh Foggy now why didn’t you say so? That is a man I could sink my teeth into.”

“Marci, you hussy.”

“Oh come on, Foggy, you do still have eyes right? Matt didn’t take those too did he?” Foggy flinched. “Now what we need to figure out is how do we get my phone number into your new boss' phone. Hmm, let’s think.”

“You’re insane.” He laughed.

“Oh so you’re telling me that a charming handsome millionaire does nothing for you? No one's that dead in the pants.”

“How do you know he’s charming? He could have been a huge asshole.”

“Was he?”

“Well, actually, he was kinda charming… funny too,” Foggy smiled to himself. “A self serious sourpuss, kinda pretentious in that way really hot guys usually are, perfectionist to the max, and not to mention intimidatingly-“

Foggy had turned around, and frozen. Ward Meachum stood just inside the conference room, eyebrows raised and more expression on his face than he'd seen all morning. Not angrily, but more neutrally displeased.

Foggy scrambled to shove his phone away, as if that would help, and opened his mouth to apologize only for him to come up with nothing. Blabbermouth for the first 31 years of his life and now he chokes?

“I forgot my pen.” Mr. Meachum said finally, looking away. 

“Mr. Meachum I am so sorry, I didn’t-“

“It’s fine Mr. Nelson I’ll just… Have a good day.” He turned and left the conference room without grabbing the pen.

Foggy stared after him, face burning. He was so fired.

 

Foggy missed Josie's. He missed the sticky floor, the sticky bar, the sticky bathroom knob. Now that he thought about it, maybe way too many things at Josie's were sticky. Nonetheless he missed it.

Nowadays he frequented less sticky establishments. The drinks may be more but it was just as easy to disappear in a fancy bar as it was in a dive. And disappear is exactly what he wanted to do. 

He had left the Rand offices and headed back to work that morning, fully expecting to get to his office and see his belongings in a box, but they weren’t. 

He expected to get called into Hogarth's and get chewed up and spit out. Fired and banished from the land, but that didn’t happen either.

In fact nothing happened; he worked the rest of the day in a fearful haze that the hammer would fall any second, but it didn’t.

By some miracle Ward Meachum hadn’t had Foggy fired. Which while surprising was just as worrisome. Foggy knew working under someone who hates you is so much worse than being flat out fired. 

And if Ward wasn’t mad or didn’t care about some nobody talking shit, he would definitely not be cool with said nobody lusting after him. Not that Foggy was lusting, he was just as Marci had said, not blind or stupid. 

Finishing up his drink and paying his tab (because he could do that now) he stood to leave, only to hear a voice to his left that made him freeze. 

Around the corner of the bar just behind a column, sat none other than Ward. He was speaking on the phone and hadn’t seemed to have spotted Foggy yet, without thinking he stopped to listen.

“…ave to do with anything?”

Foggy was a creep.

“It has not been that long. It’s only been… whatever shut up.” Ward said grumpily. Who ever he was talking to was obviously familiar, he sounded casual in a way he hadn’t once all morning.

“Well if you hadn’t noticed we’ve had kind of a rough year, excuse me for not putting 'get dick wet' at the top of my priority list.”

Foggy was such a creep. 

“Beside the point, Joy, can we just drop it? It’s done, it’s whatever. I don’t know why I told you about it. It’s not important.” He sounded bummed, and that made Foggy feel even worse. Not only was this guy not going to get Foggy fired, his feelings had actually been hurt. 

Foggy had hurt his feelings.

“I just need to get my head on straight.” Ward paused to listen, Foggy would give his left nut to know what his sister was saying. “I know, yes I’m fine. It doesn’t matter anymore. Okay, you be careful too.”

Foggy waited another minute before leaving the bar unnoticed. 

He had to apologize, it was just the last thing on the planet he wanted to do, but he knew there was no other choice. He would go to his assistant and ask for just a moment, if Ward chose to see him he would apologize, if he didn’t then Foggy had his answer, fair and square.


	2. Second Impressions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Foggy had to apologize, he had to. He should have called Karen back, too.

Foggy stared at the Rand building as he sat outside the next morning. He would never be able to prove it but he could swear that the building had actually grown the night before. Like it was trying to intimidate him away from its boss. 

He checked his watch for the third time in as many minutes, before checking his work phone. 

He had called first thing this morning with the hunch he'd catch Ward's assistant coming in early. He asked about her boss' availability, omitting the fact that his visit wouldn’t be work related. She agreed to squeeze him in just after 9, which it almost was.

He took another sip of coffee, before pulling his personal cell from his bag. The same phone that got him into this mess. He had shoved it away yesterday and let it’s battery die out of spite. He realized it was still dead and he'd not returned Marci's call, or poor Karen's for that matter. 

He'd have to call right after, if he lived.

He decided to stop being a child and actually head in after throwing away his cup. The elevator ride was just the worst, but nothing compared to the wrongness that came next. With maybe six people in the elevator the mass exodus was maybe not as civilized as it should have been given the setting. 

As soon as the shiny doors opened all six people moved at once, stampeding out and dragging Foggy out with them. He only just managed to catch his balance and without looking turned directly into someone’s path, squishing a flimsy cup of coffee between them. 

Now in that one moment before he looked up and accepted his destiny, Foggy imagined he had bumped an intern, a mailroom guy, an executive assistant, literally he imagined it was anyone else on the planet. 

It was a nice moment of peace before he lifted his eyes and saw Ward Meachum pulling his drenched shirt away from his chest. Face completely expressionless his only human tell was the slightest lifting of his right eyebrow. Foggy felt slightly hysterical and briefly wondered if he plucked, had them waxed or if they were naturally that sculpted.

“Mr. Nelson, Hello.”

“Mr. Meachum I am so unbelievably sorry! I was coming off of the elevator and everyone rushed and I almost tripped but then I didn’t an-“

“I know, it’s alright, Foggy, it was an accident. Just come on.” Ward nodded towards his office down the hall, before leading the way. Foggy followed him with his head down, like an admonished child.

He followed Ward into his office and stood awkwardly in the middle as Ward opened a closet door. “I have extra shirts in here, I’m sure it’ll fit you. I’m pretty broad in the shoulders.” He called from inside.

He then proved the width of those shoulders by exiting the closet completely shirtless, and my oh my were those shoulder wide. Along with that chest, and his thin tapered waist. Foggy was struck dumb as Ward approached, a shirt in each hand.

“Do you have a preference?” Ward asked.

“What?” Foggy answered because he was suave like that. 

“Blue or green?” he tilted his head, and smiled just the slightest bit.

“Oh um, blue thank you! God, I suck, I’m sorry I came here to apologize to you for being a complete tool yesterday only to make your day even worse. I just I have no idea what to say.” Foggy was blabbing, he could feel his cheeks heating up as he avoided eye contact.

“Well, like I said, it was accident. And about yesterday… I’ve been called worse. So take the shirt Foggy.” He pressed the soft shirt into Foggy’s hand. Something occurred to him then.

“You called me _Foggy_.” He looked up at Ward.

Foggy could pinpoint the moment _oh shit_ flew through his head. “No I didn’t.” he said after a stunned second, Foggy snorted.

“Yes, you did.” He took a step closer and caught his eyeline. “How do you know my name?”

Ward took a quick look down before drowning and putting on the dark green shirt. “I wasn’t sure whether you had remembered me yesterday. Even after I interrupted your phone call. Which I am sorry for, I, it was rude. I uh, I knew you at Columbia.”

Foggy frowned. That couldn’t be right. “What? No you didn’t. Did you?” He racked his brain. He would have known.

“Yeah, actually,” Ward did up the second to last button, leaving some tan collar bone visible without a tie. “We had Turner in L2, and Morris, and were in a study group together.”

“No fucking way!” Foggy winced, as Ward's eyes grew big. “I mean, I’m sorry I mean, That can’t be… Oh my God…”

Ward blew a laugh though his nose, “I wasn’t very, vocal back then. Or memorable, really. It was a rough time.”

“Wow, I’m an even bigger asshole than I ever realized. You went through a weird goth phase, like really late in life. What was up with that?” Foggy blurted because as established before Foggy was just the worst.

Ward, however didn’t frown or get upset, in fact he laughed. It was as deep and rich as his voice and sounded wonderfully light. Ward’s smile almost completely changed his face, little lines around his eyes and mouth made him look younger, paradoxically. 

“It wasn’t a goth phase, it was just… a dark clothes and nose ring phase. And 24 isn’t that weird even if I was goth.” He crossed his arms and by the gods honestly blushed.

“You’re right I’m sorry that was- I have no tact, you see, and as a result suck, so…” he finally got with the program and started undoing the buttons of his shirt. He did catch Ward’s eyes following his fingers for a few seconds too long, before catching himself and quickly looking away. Foggy was amused by this backwards ass reaction. Foggy had now had two first impressions and neither are what the truth of it was.

He replaced his shirt and stuffed the old one in his leather bag wanting it to disappear altogether. Ward had walked over to the wide glass Windows and stared out while Foggy cleaned up. 

“So why did you… well why didn’t you say anything yesterday? I mean when I didn’t say anything?” Foggy got his attention again.

He hesitated, “I, don’t know. It was a surprise to see a familiar face from so long ago, I guess, and then when you introduced yourself it was just,” he stood beside his desk and crossed his arms again, stretching his shirt across his chest. 

“And then I managed to shove my entire foot in my mouth almost immediately. God I’m still really sorry, I was talking to an old friend and she knows exactly where to push to get me to give in to everything. Not that that’s any excuse, obviously.”

“It’s okay Foggy, like I said I’ve been called worse than a sourpuss and pretentiously hot.” He looked down then, and Foggy smiled.

“Still, I wasn’t nice,” Foggy made up his mind then, he'd ask, and if Ward said no they could still be friends or at the very least colleagues. “I want to make it up to you. Let me take you to dinner.”

Foggy was almost as surprised as Ward looked at Foggy’s bluntness. Foggy hadn’t done that in so long he hadn’t been sure he still knew how.

“Is that- would that be okay? You working for this account? I don’t want there to be a problem.” 

Foggy could have laughed out loud, “Yeah it’s okay, I don’t have- I’ll handle Jeri, figure something out. I’m- was that a yes though?

Ward ran his eyes over Foggy in a way that was distantly familiar. “Yeah, I’d really like that. Um, How about tomorrow night?”

“Sounds great, Ward.” Foggy smiled and was rewarded with one from Ward. “I’ll leave my info with Megan.”

He stood awkwardly and made his way to the door. “I’m glad we ran into each other.” He paused by the door and looked back. 

Ward stared at him, an indistinguishable look on his face and nodded, reaching for a small green ball from his desk. “Me too, Foggy.”

 

Foggy was feeling good, he was smiling as he stepped into the fresher New York air. Which is why he was a dope to pull out his vibrating phone from his pocket, and answering without looking.

“Foggy! Thank God! Charge your goddamn phone!”

Foggy's stomach dropped. “Karen? What happened?”

“It’s Rand Foggy.”

“The company?” he asked.

“The man, he’s involved with…”

“With who?”

“The Hand, Foggy.”

“Matt's Hand?” Foggy managed to whisper out.

“He has powers Foggy.” Foggy's heart raced. “Your new boss was hunted by them, everyone at the company, including his sister has something to do with those freaks.”

“How do you know this? What do you mean _hunted_?”

Karen paused for almost a minute, “I think you need to talk to Matt, Foggy.”

Foggy was fucked.


	3. Reacquainted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Foggy had to talk to Matt. Boo.

It had been a year since Foggy last spoke to Matt. Almost to the day if he thought about it, but he tried not to as he sat in a black cab on his way to what used to be Their office.

He knew Matt had opened a new business himself. Most people tended to keep track of stuff like that whether they want to or not. It hadn’t been long after reading of Elektra's death, just after they dissolved Nelson & Murdock. 

He hadn’t called. Never contacted Matt even to share his condolences, and that was one of Foggy's biggest regrets. 

The papers painted Elektra's death as a mugging gone wrong, an excuse Foggy suspected she would have hated. They had never been more than casually acquainted, tied together by Matt. Always resented each other for existing, both having an unhealthy attachment to Matthew. They played a tug of war with him, childishly, both wanting more than their fair share, as if He was a commodity to be split between them.

He was ashamed now of how he acted when he was younger. He hated his jealousy because he knew why it had rushed through his body that very first night. Until that night he hadn’t thought Matt could hurt his feelings. Realizing he had been ditched for a girl shouldn’t have hurt so badly. 

Thinking back to last year made him feel only worse. He had hated her with everything he was, hated who Matt became when he was with her. Which was unfair, still. Matt had been a grown man both times Elektra came into his life, and was more than able to decide things for himself.

So as bad as he felt he wasn’t stupid. Matt had once called Elektra a warrior, a warrior like him, so when news hit and Matt Murdock Attorney At Law opened its doors he thought Matt had won.

He thought Elektra gave her life for Matt, for the greater good, fuck even for the thrill of battle, would have been enough. But for The Hand to still be around a year later means she died for nothing, Foggy walked away from everything for nothing. If Matt didn’t accomplish his mission then why the fuck didn’t he reach out. At least to warn him, goddamn it.

Which warranted a new question, how was Ward involved? What did Matt even know? Karen couldn’t give specifics with enough cohesion. Just kept insisting he go to Matt. 

The cab pulled to the side and Foggy stepped out into the chilly morning air. He stepped to reach for the buildings knob and quickly wondered if Matt knew he was there already. He probably did, the creeper. 

Finding Matt’s door was depressingly easy, and seeing those stickered letters made him feel absurdly out of place. Stomach churning like he was some where he wasn’t supposed to be, somewhere he didn’t belong, he reached and opened the door.

Matt was standing beside his desk, a scratched up thing that looked older than them. He made no show of looking up and pretending he didn’t already know he was there. He was already looking Foggy’s way, back straight, and hands tight around his cane. 

“Hello, Matt.” Foggy thanked heaven he sounded even a modicum of calm. Running his eyes over Matt’s face made Foggy feel sick, a black eye behind his glasses, a bruised cheek, and a busted lip that still looked swollen. His knuckles were in a similar state.

“Hello, Foggy.” Matt made to take a step forward but stopped, for some reason. Shoulders dropping. “H-how have you been?”

“I’ve been good, until today.”

Seeing Matt’s office didn’t relieve any tension in Foggy’s shoulders, and seeing Matt like this just made him feel tired. What a mess.

“Why? What happened? Did someone…”

“Did someone what? Attack me? Hurt me? Kidnap me? Well not yet, but hey there’s always tomorrow. You know The Hand, those guys always with the mystery killing.”

“What are you talking about? What has The Hand… Foggy what are you talking about?”

“I’m working exclusively with Rand Industries.” Foggy’s answer was enough as Matt’s hands immediately tightened along with his shoulders.

“You can’t do that.”

“Excuse me?” Foggy felt his face grow warm with anger as much as he tried to control his voice.

“How did you know there was something going on? Did something actually happen?” Matt decided to finally take that step forward, taking his glasses off tossing them onto his desk. 

“It doesn’t matter how I know. The point is how is The Hand still here? How long have you known? How did you and Elektra fail?” Foggy hadn’t meant to twist the knife and immediately regretted having caused Matt’s stricken look.

“We didn’t fail, we won that battle. We kept Elektra from them. She didn’t die as their slave, their mindless weapon. She died honorably.”

Foggy stared at Matt as they calmed down. This wasn’t going to fix or explain anything. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have- I’m sorry.”

Matt nodded. “You can’t be involved in Rand, Foggy. There’s still a lot that company has to clean up before the influence The Hand had over it is erased. Danny Rand is just as involved in this mess as I am.”

“When you say 'involved' do you mean as a good guy or as a bad guy? I mean am I working for Bruce Wayne or Lex Luthor?” Foggy asked taking a seat in front of Matt’s desk. Matt smiled as he copied Foggy and eased into his desk chair, he must have bruising on his back and ribs.

“Neither I’m afraid. Not that I know much, his... abilities, are apparently impressive.” 

“He the one that made you all pretty today?” Foggy couldn’t help but ask, it was still instinct to feel rankled seeing Matt like that.

“No, uh this was actually, a friendly sparring match.” Matt smiled crookedly, he seemed see.

“Great, now your friends beat you up too? Not the best plan I have to admit, but I mean, I guess we have to start some where.”

“We? Foggy this is still really complicated and really dangerous. There’s no safe way to be involved. Its why Nelson & Murdock couldn’t be. This part of my world will always bleed over.”

“I’m not asking for permission to sit at the table Matt. Jeri's not dumb, she chose me because of my involvement with Castle, with Daredevil, even Danny Rand apparently. I’m not letting The Hand force me away from my career again. Not that I can escape it, obviously.” 

Matt looked about ready to argue again when it occurs to him to ask, “Oh hey, completely unrelated, do you remember that one goth kid in Turner, sophomore year?”

Matt’s head shoots up and his eyes zero in on Foggy in that way they’re not supposed to be able to. “Why?”

“You do remember? What was up with him?” Foggy smiled widely.

“What do you mean?” Matt shifted in his seat, made to reach for his glasses but they weren’t on his face. Foggy was amused.

“Well, I don’t know? I don’t really remember much about him, just a stray thought.” Foggy spent the last year expertly crafting his lawyer powers of half truths. Take that superheroes.

“Well, he was fourth in the class, he uh,” Matt smirked, as he continued “He hated me.”

“What? Why?”

“You really don’t remember?” Matt actually looked doubtful, but pressed on. “He was really into you.”

“Whaaat?” Foggy joked, thinking Matt was too, only he tilted his head and looked almost bashful. “Wait for real? Nuh huh, how did I not know?”

“I honestly always thought that too, you were so blind to it you actually invited me along when he offered you tickets to The Cure. Like, right in front of him. It was hard to look at.” Matt laughed quietly as he sat back.

Foggy was going to hell, that much was obvious, but he'd at least apologize again to poor Ward the next day. God, why on earth had Ward agreed to dinner that morning? He was not going to look him over again.

“God, what was his name?” Matt asked, Foggy panicked and decided to cut his losses. He stood up and clapped his hands. 

“Okay, well I’m off to work, only, three and a half hours late, but we are continuing this talk. Karen sends her regards-“

“Oh Karen of course!”

“Who else Matty,” Matt’s eyes widened and he smiled, and Foggy could admit he had missed that smile. “Anyway I will be back, hopefully I’ll have met the Impressive Danny Rand.”

“I didn’t say he was impressive, I said apparently impressive, not the same thing.”

“Uh huh. Well, either way I suspect I’ll take a page from Claire Temple and embrace the fact that my life is just _like_ this now.”

Matt smiled softly and nodded, a shrug. “I am sorry, for trying to keep this from you again. I- have no excuse. You’ll always mean too much to me.”

“Matt-“

“No you should know, that it’s not that you matter the least, Foggy. That was never true. I fight and I bleed and I keep going because I know that if I can keep them away from you. I can be worthy to be…” Matt took a breath, two. “I know how dangerous it is to keep secrets, when you were away from this I had to learn trust someone besides you. And to trust you enough to let you do this is the least I can do.

Foggy moved to Matt and wrapped his arms around him as tightly as he dared with Matt hurt. “Thank you, Matty. We'll figure something out okay?”

Matt nodded and Foggy moved the door. “Oh hey, if you haven’t met Danny Rand 'formerly' who are working with at Rand?”

Foggy froze, hand on the knob, damn Murdock and his impeccable timing. “Oh, actually I’m working with the Meachums for now.”

Matt nodded once, twice before it struck him. Foggy could see him out the pieces together at once, meaning that was Foggy’s cue. “Well I’ll stop by again soon, ta.” He pulled the door closed on Matt’s struck dumb face. And while yes very little and petty of him It was still really satisfying. 

For the second time that day, Foggy walked out into the New York air, as biting cold as it was, smiling.


	4. Aquainted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Foggy goes on a date. Ward trolls. And Jeri terrifies.

Foggy realized, maybe all too late, that his suave bravado when asking Ward Meachum to dinner had been, not as thought out as it could have been. He could definitely spot the holes now, as he was walking into work the next morning, looking like Swiss cheese.

He had a morning meeting every Friday from now until the foreseeable future while Foggy took full control and ironed out a few of Rand's bumpier legal moments from last year. Which all made more sense now that he knew The Hand, and Matt's crew were a part of it. 

He still had a lot of questions, and was debating taking his date with Ward as an opportunity to get some answers. Answers, at least, that weren’t all cryptic and ominously brooding, like Matt tended to give him, even when 'sharing'. 

On the other hand he kind of wanted to actually enjoy his date, so maybe he could play the clueless date for just one night. He wasn’t even sure if He should be thinking of a place to go or make a reservation of some kind. Not that Foggy could get any respectable table with one days notice. Maybe he could take him to Josie's, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to show Ward all his worst traits at once, and loving that dive was definitely a guilty pleasure. 

He smiled imagining Ward “Grumpy Gills” Meachum sitting on Josie’s wobbly stool, choking down the eel. He’d have to take him one day, hopefully they could make it past date one.

His shoes clicked on the building's marble floors, echoing through the hallways and he swore the elevator gave a sarcastic groan as he walked onto the 38th floor.

He passed right by his floor and headed straight to Hogarth's, muttering to himself all the while.

He could do this, he was an adult in charge of his destiny. Here we go world, he thought crazily as he stood frozen in her doorway.

“What.” She hadn’t even had to look up, and would a little inflection kill her? Geez.

“Oh, Hello Ms. Hogarth,” she rolled her eyes as he made his way to her desk. “How are you this beautiful morning, Jeri?”

She didn’t answer, or move, or make any type of expression, just stared at him. He could admit, one of Jeri's greatest weapons was her _intimidation stare of doom_ , but he could do this, he could be an adult.

“Right so, Rand is under control for now,” Foggy’s voice didn’t warble, so that was a plus, “I have a second meeting next Tuesday, with Ms. Meachum, to finish up those contracts, and we should be ready for the final Rand plant modifications from the contractors that we can go over with the board. The Rand Fund, is set up as of today as well, according to Mr. Rand's wishes and _I asked Ward Meachum on a date_ , so all incoming potential suits will be handled at the Fund's discretion, which cuts that workload in half. So… that’s good. I also finished up my team assignations for HR, but I emailed you as well for final approval.”

“I approved them all except Kennedy, I’m going to need her for the Hugo International buyout next month. Sanders should be fine to replace her.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He jotted down the quick change. His hands sweating made it not easy.

Jeri gave him absolutely no clue as to how he did on his oh so clever set up. She didn’t look impressed but then again she never did. 

“Is that all?” She finally asked after a purposefully too long a pause, he blinked at her and tried to guess to see if she was kidding or if he should start planning what break rooms to hit for the best bagels on his way out of the building. 

“Um, yes, I think that’s all for today, I'll be sure to call Davidson’s about those plans and have Matthews draw some booklets up as a walkthrough for the board. Excuse me, ma’am.” He breathed slowly on his way out and nearly fainted when Jeri called out to him at the last second.

“Nelson,” he turned and saw a sharply predatory smile on her face, he gulped audibly, “I expect utmost tact, and discretion.”

He nodded dumbly, and left the office, hands only slightly shaking, which was pretty standard for a morning meeting with Jeri.

He made it to his own office two floors down and closed the door completely before letting out a breath of relief. _Holy shit_ , never again would he wonder why Hogarth was senior partner. That woman was terrifying even while approving of you.

He turned to his desk and spotted an absurdly huge, bouquet of red roses that took almost half of his desk. He burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of it, and quickly reached for the equally huge card taped to the front, hand written _Mr. Nelson_ , in familiar loopy script.

Roses are red  
Violets are blue  
One rose was cheesy  
So have 222

-Ward  
P.S. I may or may not have had the delivery guy accidently deliver this to Hogarth's first, on purpose. Oops. See you at 7.

So that explained Hogarth's cavalier and mocking attitude, along with her ominous warning (he was loathe to call it a threat). He smiled dopily the man’s sense of humor and the balls he must have to poke at Hogarth like that.

He turned as the door to his office opened after a quick rap of knuckles. “Hey, Foggy glad I caught you- oh! Those are pretty.”

“Oh, thanks. They’re from- an old school friend.” He answered lamely, so unconvincingly he was ashamed to call himself a lawyer. 

Janet from HR nodded, but smiled wryly, “Uh huh, anyways, I need you to sign the team approval paperwork. I assume Jeri told you about Kennedy?” She stepped to his desk and snorted while foggy scrambled up three (what he hoped weren't real crystal) vases and set them on the floor.

“Yeah, just now, thank you.” He signed the paperwork as a scribble as she amusedly looked over the flowers.

“Nice friend.” She commented reaching for a rose and pulling it free. 

“The best.” He answered smiling bashfully. She rolled her eyes and took the packet from him again.

“So we’re having drinks at Louis' tonight for Kennedy and them as a goodbye, you coming?” She asked, placing the rose carefully between the packet.

“Goodbye? Why, goodbye?” he asked, picking a whole vase and handing it to her altogether, what else was he supposed to do, he had 200 of these things?

“The Hugo buyout, it’s all going down in China, so off they go. Hugo Natchios is even going to be there, Huang-Ha is paying a lot of money so it’s all big dealy.”

Foggy had frozen, Hugo Natchios was represented by his law firm. What could the odds possibly be on that? This information set off his Foggy-Sense and that was not good thing. He'd mention it to Matt just as soon as he saw him again, he should at least know that Elektra's father was selling his company. After her death, he could only imagine why.

“Foggy,… hey you alright?” she looked at him worriedly. He shook his head to clear it, enough with the doom and gloom, Foggy was going to give himself an ulcer.

“Oh yeah, I was just thinking, um, you know I actually have plans for tonight,” his eyes flicked to the roses and back, but she caught him out anyway.

“Oh, yeah of course. I’ll um let the others know. Next time definitely.” She smirked as she walk to the door and paused before leaving. “Have a good one Foggy, we’ll drink one for you.”

He smiled and waved, face heating up as she closed the door behind her. 

Tonight was going to be interesting.

 

Foggy wasn’t nervous, not really. His rumbling stomach and sweaty palms were about something else, unrelated, he tried to assure himself. 

He stared at his reflection in the mirror and stuck his tongue out. His hair was maybe not as cooperative as he would have hoped and was completely unwilling to see reason. He couldn’t find his new cashmere sweater with the fancy sleeves, so he decided on a soft blue button down and a pair of nice jeans. 

They hadn’t actually spoken about where they were going but he was dressed for most places while still being relatively comfortable. Thought Ward would be amenable at least to discussing the night’s plans.

He heard a buzz from the front room and jumped in surprise, checking his watch, it was 6:48. He pressed the intercom by the door in answer.

“Yes?”

“You have a visitor, sir.” Foggy’s doorman answered. He was a kind man in his sixties, still as spry and animated as a thirty year old, with a warm smile and Foggy’s favorite candy always in his bowl.

“Thank you, Walter, I’ll be right down.”

He scrambled for his shoes before double checking phone, wallet, and keys and heading down.

He exited the elevator and spotted Ward immediately. He was just outside the doors, waiting by a black town car. Wearing a black turtleneck and slacks he looked comfortably casual, talking to Walter, a small smile on his face. Foggy could admit he didn’t hate that smile.

Stepping outside he caught the men’s attention and interrupted as Ward turned to him.

“Foggy, hi.” Ward spoke up first, looking him up and down. “You look great.”

“Thanks, I uh, you too.” Foggy said, stepping closer.

Walter stood between them, smiling widely as they fumbled dorkily. “Well you boys have a good time, now. Be good, Mr. Nelson.”

“Yes Wally,” he stepped up to Ward as the man opened Foggy’s door. “Thanks.”

Ward closed the door after him and made his own way to the driver side. “We all set?” he asked, Foggy nodded, and they were off.

“So, no horse and carriage?” Foggy joked, and felt accomplished when Ward snorted.

“I thought about it, not going to lie,” Ward smiled, and Foggy snorted, a lot of smiling and snorting going on, not that he was bragging, “but I thought I'd impress you more in a car that didn’t smell like a horse's ass.”

“Good good, trust your instincts, always go with your gut. Consider me thoroughly impressed. _Mmm black cherry_ ” Foggy flicked the air freshener gaming off the rearview.

“So did you like the small arraignment I sent?” He asked as he fought a smirk.

“Yeah small, well I can say my office will never smell of anything else ever again, but you did make me quite popular with the ladies on my floor after I got done passing out all 200 roses.”

Ward laughed quietly as listened to Foggy’s tale of a thousand thorn pricks. He drove smoothly and carefully as one could in the city, as he listened to Foggy. Foggy in returned was able to talk away comfortably, taking every now and again to admire Ward’s smile or smirk.

Foggy asked Ward about himself, his sister, even Danny, but he was only really able to give half answers that Foggy recognized from his own life. He could put together the pieces that Ward left out, mostly stuff about Danny, but Foggy recognized the hesitance and decided to change the subject to something easier.

“Jeri Hogarth sends her love, by the way.” Foggy caught Ward’s genuinely wide smile at that.

“Oh she’s a sweetheart.” Ward chuckled as he pulled down into a parking garage, Foggy didn’t even know where they were going, hadn’t even thought to ask. “I hope I didn’t cause you too much grief though. I’m not really worth you risking your job for or anything.”

“No grief, well, no more than usual. As long as you don’t go all Mr. Grey on me, I think my job’s fine too.”

“Damn, let me go tell Mistress Zanadu that the orgy's off for tonight, then.” Ward joked as he parked and switched off the car. Foggy laughed at the man’s whip quick sense of humor.

“Well, let not make rash decisions here, either. Mistress Zanadu, you say?”

He followed the man through the empty garage and into an elevator, where he pushed the button for the penthouse. He caught Foggy’s eye and shuffled awkwardly.

“I hope you don’t mind. I uh, don’t really have much fun at restaurants these days.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, standing half a step back from Foggy. There was the slightest blush on the man’s cheeks and Foggy could not wrap his head around this guy. One moment he was all alpha assertive, then casually funny, now adorably bashful for not liking being in crowds. Foggy had to admit Marci had been right, Ward was charming, Foggy was charmed by him.

“I’m all for take out, are you kidding?” Foggy assured him, deciding to take a step closer, feeling Ward out somewhat. Feeling brave suddenly. “It’s all about the company, I think.”

Ward looked Foggy in the eyes and nodded. Eyes flicking down to Foggy’s lips briefly enough to almost miss it. “I got a really good recommendation on this place so…” he said distractedly, Foggy was shamelessly leaning in now, He could smell Ward’s amazing cologne and the mint on his breath.

In the end it was Ward that closed the last few inches and kissed Foggy. His lips were dry and soft, breath minty and sweet. Foggy leaned into it with gusto. It had been coming up a year with only a few casual dates peppered here and there, even a kiss every now and again. This kiss however was not like those.

Ward took Foggy’s face in his hands, gently, and used that to pull him this way and that. Turning Foggy’s face and taking control of the kiss. Foggy’s hands found Ward’s waist and gripped it as the kiss deepened. They ascended surrounded by the lewd sounds of kissing, wet smacking and whatnot. Ward’s hands felt great, warm and big, making Foggy melt as Ward’s callused fingers ran through Foggy’s hair.

Foggy thought, he was reading too much into Ward at first, but as the man, pawed at and held Foggy, he didn’t seem too concerned about it. Ward was as into this as Foggy was, which was good because Foggy had no present plans to stop kissing him anytime soon.

They finally came up for air when the elevator doors spread open with a ding, and Foggy was met with a beautiful penthouse apartment overlooking way too much of central park to be fair to the rest of the world. 

Ward’s lips were red and used looking, which did great things for Foggy’s imagination, but terrible things for his train of thought.

“Come on,” Ward stepped out, holding his hand out to Foggy, making him feel absurdly pleased and dorky; he took Ward’s hand.

“This place is beautiful.” It really was, a whole two walls were floor to ceiling windows, tg showed off an incredible view of the city. The furniture was robust and darkly colored, comfortable looking fluffy couch that surprised Foggy. Ward tended to give off tiny uncomfortable futuristic couch vibes. 

His walls hung with what he assumed was insanely pricey artwork, interrupted more often than not with pictures of Ward and Joy. Some were of them as kids, some of Joy alone, he caught two or three of the full family and even one with who he suspected was a tiny Danny Rand. 

“Thank you.” He led Foggy through the entrance, into the apartment proper. “Are you hungry? The delivery guys should have finished setting up by now.”

“Starved.” Foggy agreed, and continued around the corner, where he spotted a table for two, set up with candles and wine glasses. The whole dining room had been cleared away to make room for the little set up. “Wow, this is…”

“Too much? I knew it. I knew it, but that goddamn hippie-“ Ward was already flushing red, and Foggy laughed, squeezing his hand to get Ward’s attention.

“It’s awesome.” He looked Ward in the eye and tried to put as much sincerity into it as he could. Ward deflated.

“Really?” Ward asked, cheeks still blotchy red.

“Really. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. Come on.” 

Ward seemed reluctant to fully believe him, but he still moved to pull out Foggy’s chair for him. Foggy thanked him as he took his seat. Ward moved to the side table and retrieved two fully prepared plates from under a fancy covered platter. It smelled delicious and looked great.

“Um, chicken or steak?” he asked, looking adorably puzzled. 

“Chicken is great. Thank you, Ward. This looks perfect.” 

Ward smiled crookedly as he took his seat, “Didn’t do much, I’m a pretty shit cook, but the caterers did a phenomenal job, I agree.”

“Hey if there’s one thing a New Yorker can understand, it's the trouble of ordering take out. Don’t sell yourself short, there’s an art to it.”

Ward smirked in agreement. “Would you like some wine?” He pulled a bottle of white from a small stand beside the table and twisted off the cork.

“Yes, thank you.” Foggy tipped his glass to Ward as he poured. There was a moment of silence as Foggy tried the wine, which of course was perfect too. “It’s amazing.”

“Good, so how abo-“

Ward’s words were cut off and drowned out by a huge shatter of glass in the other room. Foggy jumped and Ward scrambled up, knocking his chair back, before taking a quick step to Foggy. “Stay, here. Don’t move.”

Before Foggy could respond, or argue more-like, Ward disappeared around the corner. Foggy obviously immediately followed because, _come on really_?

The window that shattered was actually a glass door that led out into a balcony. Whoever had crashed through it was currently on the floor, Ward kneeling over them, as they whispered angrily back and forth.

“Um, is everything okay?” Foggy asked, not really sure what else to say.

They both looked over at Foggy simultaneously and he recognized the guy currently bleeding out on his date's floor. “Foggy, this isn’t… what it looks like. Um…”

Foggy decided to be generous and gave him almost thirty seconds to come up with something halfway convincing, but when nothing came and he looked like he might bust a blood vessel he took pity on poor Ward.

“It’s okay let’s get him onto the couch.” Foggy moved to him, Ward looked relieved and terrified in equal measures. He had clearly not been dealing with Danny’s shit for long enough. He recognized the look from the mirror way back when.

“Mr. Rand, Hi,” he managed to get the bleeding man’s attention, his eyes were half lidded and glazed, “I’m Foggy, listen, look at me. We’re going to move you okay? Don’t seize up when we lift you, okay? Did you hear me?”

“Don- seize up. Got it.” Danny repeated. His words were slurred and slow but he was still present. His torso was cut up to shreds. Black hoodie hung in wet strands, and Foggy’s stomach rolled with sickening familiarity, leaning over this bleeding man.

Ward looked green in the gills as Foggy took his hands to steady them. “Can you do this?” Foggy asked, catching Ward’s gaze and holding it. He was looking slightly wild around the eyes, and doubtful as he glanced at Danny but nodded all the same.

They each took a side, supporting Danny’s body as they lifted up and moved to the couch. Danny was surprisingly light, compared to certain other vigilantes. Matt had felt like a bag of bricks, where Danny’s only weight seem to be from the sopping wet clothes.

Laying him on the couch was easy compared to picking him up, but they tried to be as careful as possible, still. “He's torn up, really bad.” Foggy told Ward, when he returned with an armful of towels. 

“We have to call an ambulance.” Ward answered.

“N-no hospital.” Danny croaked, groaning when Ward pressed down on his cuts with a towel all at once. There were just so many cuts. Foggy’s stomach started sinking the more he stared at Danny. These cuts… he had to call Matt.

“I know someone, hopefully she doesn’t hang up on me.” Foggy turned and reached for his phone from his pocket. 

It rang once, twice, “Foggy. Please tell me you’re calling to ask me to run away together. Run far far away and leave New York and it’s heroes to their own devices.” It was good to hear her voice after so long. Foggy was loathe to ruin her mood.

“Afraid not, Claire.” Danny rumbled for a second before settling down at Ward’s touch. He noticed Danny was squeezing the hell out of Ward’s hand, but Ward held on, glancing worriedly between Danny and Foggy on the phone. “We’ve kind of got an emergency. We could really use the help.”

“I didn’t realize you and Matt were, you know, back it again.” Claire responded, the shuffling and slamming of cabinets on her end was answer enough that she would come, bless her.

“It’s actually not Matt this time.” 

Ward’s head shot up and eyes narrowed before he could catch himself, and by God if that wasn’t hilarious, apparently Matt was right. Even after all these years, huh.

“Oh my god, Foggy, please tell me you didn’t go and find yourself _another vigilante_. What is wrong with us?”

Foggy laughed and agreed before letting her go and thanking her again. He'd send the address and _wound description_ (because that was apparently his life now) in a text.

He stashed his phone as he returned to couch. “Everything good?” Ward asked as he knelt down beside him.

His hand was bloody and some had smeared on his cheek, Foggy could appreciate the question. 

“She’s on her way. It shouldn’t be long.”

Ward nodded and continued to apply pressure as thoroughly and carefully as possible. “God, if something happens to Danny while Joy's away, she’s going to kill me.”

“Nothing’s gonna happen.” Foggy reached to pat Ward’s knee, squeezing softly. Ward looked better, if not all the way good, but his eyes looked less wild and he smiled wanly at Foggy’s reassurance. They'd have to talk about things now, Foggy knew.

Danny was semi lucid at best. Foggy didn’t even want to think about how he made it all the way to this floor, bleeding out so much. He hoped Danny hadn’t been followed, he did not want to meet the guy who had done this to someone who had ' _apparently impressive abilities_. Maybe he should call Matt sooner rather than later.

Danny, in the end made the decision for him when he started to struggle against their hold. “No- No I have to go. She’ll come, she’s coming.” His words were still slurred and he didn’t seem to be even talking to Ward or Foggy. He looked past them, straight through them, a fearful look on his face and hands shaking again.

“Who, Danny?” Ward asked, quietly. Foggy had a sudden sinking feeling. Something he had developed some point after the incident. A swooping shock that warned him whatever was coming next was bad. It was with him the night he discovered Matt’s secret, before the explosions with Karen, and even the morning of the incident itself.

He felt it then, rip his stomach right from him, and then Danny spoke.

“Elektra… She- called her... Elektra.”

He had to call Matt, now.


	5. Clean Hands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire was a life saver, Danny was adorable, and Ward was such a big brother.

Foggy hands were shaking by the time Ward went to answer the door to let in Claire. Foggy had taken his place beside Danny when Ward went to go look for new towels, after having used the others to sop up Danny’s blood from the floor and couch. He had lost so much already, Foggy was genuinely worried he'd lose consciousness.

As it was his rambling and struggles had already reduced to pained groaning and the occasional mumble. Not that Foggy wanted another life-fucking revelation so soon after the last one. 

Matt’s phone went straight to voicemail and Foggy had spent nearly a full minute _explicitly_ telling him why that was a bad idea for someone with his kind of 'night job'. After the third voicemail and text he gave up and returned to Ward. Who had started to look better as he went along. Foggy had tried to distract him by asking questions about Columbia of all things. 

Test scores, shitty professors, and communal appreciation for the coffee cart next to Baxter, that sold those heart shaped double chocolate cookies all of February. Foggy was proud of himself for making Ward chuckle after recounting his Tale of The Valentine’s Caper. Which involved Matt’s cane, three helium balloons, and an ill timed pigeon attack, back in their third year.

He hadn’t clarified his shocked reaction to Danny’s ominous rumblings because he honestly had no idea what to say or how to begin. He'd deal with that when Matt called him back.

Voices rang from the front hallway before Claire and Ward turned the corner. Ward carried Claire’s giant bag and almost bumped right into her as she froze, spotting the bleeding man.

“Danny?!” she barked before rushing over to them and started carefully removing the red stained towel. “Jesus Christ, what happened to him?” Foggy was speechless, how did Claire know Danny? An equally confused looking Ward moved to set down the bag beside Claire and opened it. It had definitely grown since he had last called Claire for Matt. Fuller with gauze, needles, bottles of alcohol and disinfectant, bottles of what Foggy assumed were pain killers and even what looked like clawed gardening tools stuck out of the side. Claire had apparently been just as busy as Foggy it seemed. 

“He didn’t say much after destroying my door and bleeding on all my stuff, so your guess is good as ours at this point.” Ward answered, already handing Claire the scissors so she could cut away the tattered hoodie.

It was not a pretty sight. Danny’s torso had deep cuts all up and down his chest and stomach. Whatever tattoo used to be on his chest was sliced to high heaven and nearly indistinguishable from the blood, new and old, that was still on his chest. Ward couldn’t seem to look directly at it and seemed to be focusing on the bag in front of him instead. Foggy couldn’t blame him.

Danny’s face was beat to hell too, his right eye was nearly swollen closed. Cheeks blooming with bruises already, complimented his busted lips. 

“He’s lost a lot of blood Claire.” Foggy asked, rethinking things now that he saw the full extent of the damage. “Maybe we should…”

She looked just as unsure as he felt as she began cleaning the worst of the wounds, “My answer is obviously yes, but knowing Danny, it’s probably just as dangerous to take him to one in the city. We'll do what we can and if he gets any worse, or at least doesn’t stabilize soon we’ll say fuck it and take him. Sound good?”

Foggy nodded, agreeing readily. He was not prepared to make any further decisions that night. 

“Speaking of which, how _do_ you know him. I mean I work for him and this is my second meeting the guy.” Foggy asked, lending his hands to Claire as she needed them to help her keep Danny still as she worked.

“Long story. Short of it is, he’s dating my sensei.”

“Danny’s dating?”

“You have a sensei?” Foggy and Ward asked at the same time. They looked at each other and smiled, Foggy rolling his eyes. 

He caught Claire’s quick quirk of the eyebrow as she observed them, and Foggy coughed awkwardly, cheeks heating.

“Speaking of, I need to call her immediately. If she doesn’t already know, she’ll need to be here.” 

Foggy watched her work with such appreciation. She was quick and efficient, hands steady as she began to stitch up the worst slashes. They were deepest near his sides and ribs. Foggy could only imagine Elektra had been going for killing blows, prison yard style. He guessed if Danny had lived to tell the tale of this fight he'd managed to evade her long enough to at least run. Luckiest thing to probably happen to him.

“I'll get these into the wash, we can at least reuse them for clean up after. Excuse me.” Ward picked up the used towels gingerly, face pinched and flushing again with color. He stepped around the couch, and disappeared into the apartment.

Foggy stared after him before looking back to Claire, she was already smirking. “Go. The anesthetic is already working, he should be okay ’til I’m done.” Foggy thanked her with a smile and stood to follow Ward.

He found him in a bathroom, looking tattered and out of place in the gleaming clean around him, hands shaking as he held a little orange bottle. Foggy wasn’t stupid or naïve enough to not put the pieces together. He knew Ward wasn’t doing well with tonight, he couldn’t blame him, or judge.

“Hey,” Foggy called out, deciding it was the best choice, he knew he was interrupting a private moment but he felt compelled to. 

Ward for his part, didn’t try to hide the bottle or rush to make an excuse. He just sighed deeply and leaned back onto the counter. “Hey.”

Foggy stepped closer still and slowly, carefully took the pills from Ward's bloody hands. He realized with a small smile that both his and Ward's were shaking the slightest bit. He placed the bottle on the counter beside them and took Ward’s hands in his own. Looking into Ward's eyes, he saw what was mostly likely being reflected right back, doubt, and he didn’t like it.

Without a word he pulled Ward's hands to the sink and turned on the water. Both of their sleeves had been rolled up and ruined anyway, but he still ran his hands under the faucet. He lathered soap onto both sets and scrubbed away as Ward stood quietly and let him. Face relaxing and shoulder dropping from around his ears. The bubbles turned a morbid pink before washing away as Foggy finished.

He grabbed a clean hand towel and dried both their hands. Leaving them clean and smelling like forty dollar hand soap. Ward breathed deeply when Foggy finished, tossing away the towel. “I'm sorry.” He whispered.

“You don’t have to be.” Foggy wasn’t sure what to do next, he looked up at Ward, gave him a small smile. “You wont ever have to be.”

Ward was the one to instigate their second kiss. This one was softer, a soft brush of lips, and just as sweet. Ward's hands found Foggy's hips this time and Foggy was more than okay with that. He held Ward's face this time too and scratched satisfyingly against his five o'clock scruff. It was a satisfying relief and Foggy growled when his phone started to vibrate in his pocket. 

He was still sharing breath with Ward when he pressed the phone to his ear, “What?”

“Foggy? What happened? Where are you?” Matt sounded out of breath and worried in equal measures. 

“Fucking finally!” Foggy barked, startling Ward and himself, for not counting on the echo. “Sorry.”

He took a quick step back and continued on, “Matt, I’ve already sent you an address, get here now.”

“Foggy- I'm sorry but can this wait? This isn’t exactly the be-“

“Matthew Michael Murdock I swear to god if you are not at this apartment within twenty minutes I will sick Karen Page on you. And she will unleash a fury the likes you’ve never known. Do you understand me?”

He took a quick look at Ward and rolled his eyes at the wide open grin on his face. That man was a child in a hot man's body.

“I'll be there in ten.” Matt answered before he hung up, sounding properly scolded. Foggy blew out a breath, these people were going to give him an ulcer.

“How in the hell is Murdock involved in all this? How are you two still friends?” Ward asked, running his eyes over Foggy as he began to unbutton his blue dress shirt. Foggy chuckled.

“It’s kind of a long story, mostly drama, a little comedy to ease the way, and way too much horror but it’ll be easier to just get it all out when he gets here.” Foggy stripped off the shirt leaving him in his moderately cleaner tee. Wards eyes skimmed over Foggy before flushing and looking away.

“ _It’s like I can’t win_.” Ward said under his breath as Foggy moved pick up the bloodied towels and bundled them up.

“What was that?” Foggy asked, turning back as he left the bathroom.

Ward followed. “Huh? Oh nothing, just… here let me show you the laundry machine.” He answered lamely. 

This man went to law school, Foggy thought to himself as he followed Ward.

They returned to the living room as Claire finished up her third set of stiches. She’d gotten his lighter cuts to stop bleeding enough to bandage and was ready to finish up. 

“How is he?” Ward asked, a little calmer as he approached the now unconscious Danny. Claire’s eyes tracked them both, a knowing gleam in her eye as she opened another sterile bandage.

“His blood pressure evened out, no broken ribs, bleeding stopped, whatever weapons did this weren’t poisoned, small miracles. It’s kinda up in the air now.” She paused to think. “It's weird though, the punches and kicks that caused this kind of bruising should have been more than enough to break bones. They just didn't.”

“Do you think that was on purpose? Why would they do that?” Foggy asked, already regretting the answer. It was Ward who gave it to him, unfortunately.

“The Hand, doesn’t just kill. If they think you’ll suffer more, or if they need you, they'll keep you alive.” Ward was staring at Danny’s tattoo, and Foggy wondered about the significance. 

He didn’t like Ward’s look or tone, and remembered what Karen had said. Ward had been hunted by them, he may not know what exactly that all entailed but he sure as fuck could imagine.

“If Gao did this, she wanted to prove something.”

“Gao?” Foggy questioned. 

“Creepy old lady, mystical ninja shit, blah blah. The point is if Gao is already back in New York, and she’s already making moves on the local vigilante population, it means she’s not fucking around anymore.”

Whatever shit Claire had gotten into this past year was way beyond Foggy’s paygrade. The name Gao seemed familiar but he couldn’t place it.

“I need to call Colleen.” Claire remembered suddenly, pulling out her phone before standing and leaving the room.

Ward didn’t take his eyes off Danny’s tattoo but Foggy had a feeling he wasn't even seeing it. Foggy reached for his hand to get his attention. 

“Hey, you should probably change, that sweater can’t be comfortable.” Foggy tried a smile that Ward didn't see, but he did nod in agreement before standing too. 

He left the room a third time, hands balled up but steady. Foggy stared after him again, too.

“So, Foggy…” Claire had reentered from the dining room and was now smirking at him, judging him with her judging eyes.

“Yes, Claire?” he asked meekly.

“How long you been boinkin’ the boss?”

“Claire!? How dare you- well I never- why would you- that is- the audacity-“

“Cut the shit.” She laughed out. Approaching Foggy with what he recognized as his own cold forgotten meal, fork spearing up a piece of chicken before chowing down on it.

He sighed, “This is actually our first date.” Foggy felt Claire's ugly snort and the huge bite she took of mashed potatoes was mocking enough, he didn’t need the silent laughter too.

“Oh, you poor thing.” She groaned after the next bite. “I love this place.”

“Yeah, laugh it up Temple, what was your night like before duty called?”

She shrugged, “I wasn’t on a date with a billionaire I can tell you that?”

“Millionaire, actually.” Ward came back in, tight black tee stretched over his great arms, boy he had good arms. His hair was mussed and gel free, hanging loose around his face, and for the quickest second Foggy recognized the long haired, nose ringed, quiet guy from his Saturday morning study group, who used to stare at him during particularly passionate debates. He walked back, and straight to Foggy. “Danny's the billionaire.”

“Oh well, my mistake.” Claire smiled as she sat on the couch and continued eating. How she could have an appetite after working on Danny, Foggy had no idea. “Did Matt finally answer?”

Ward surprised him by moving beside him and being the one to take Foggy's hand first. It was such a casual move, he wouldn’t have registered it if Claire hadn’t zeroed in on it immediately.

“Hm? Oh yeah, he should be here any minute.”

“Oh, joy.” Ward responded, face doing that neutrally displeased thing he seemed to be so good at.

“Come on. It’s been like ten years, you cannot have held a grudge this long. What could he have possibly done?” He asked Ward, as Claire's eyes lit up. 

“You guys all know each other from what, school? Wow. What are the odds of that?” She asked, taking a bite of chicken. “And you don’t like Matt I'm guessing?”

“I have nothing against Murdock.” Ward answered, pretending to spot some dust on a table near his hip.

“Uh huh, okay.” She continued eating as they sat to wait for Matt. Foggy was absolutely terrified of the prospect of telling Matt about Elektra. Whatever The Hand was up to, it was not going to be pleasant.

Ward seemed to be getting anxious as the minutes ticked by in silence and started to clean up the glass still strewn about the floor. Foggy let him be and turned his attention to a now mumbling Danny.

He seemed to be coming to somehow. Now, Foggy saw the pills Claire had fed Danny not twenty minutes ago, and he should not be anywhere near this coherent so soon, and yet. “Ward… Ward- I.”

Ward stopped sweeping and slowly made his way to the front of the couch, where Danny could spot him. Ward didn’t look upset so much as worried. He knelt. “I'm right here, Danny.” He even gave Danny a tired smile in return for Danny’s grin at seeing Ward.

“Ward, I’m sorry. I suck.” Danny said, smiling softly. Ward laughed and nodded.

“Yeah you do,” He took Danny's shaking hand and squeezed, “But it’s okay.”

“No, it isn't.” he was becoming more lucid as he continued to talk and Foggy worried the painkillers hadn’t been enough to even ease his pain, but then he remembered Matt's meditation deal and figured Danny probably had the same thing going on. “Did you go on your date?”

Foggy's eyes widened, turning to Ward who was flushing red but was showing absolutely no expression, eyes on Danny. Hogarth would be impressed.

“Go to sleep, Danny.” Ward tried, lips tight, teeth grinding.

“No, really, did she like the roses?” Danny asked. Claire cackled in the background.

“The roses were great Dan. Now sleep.” Ward was full on blushing and Foggy couldn’t help but be full on smitten. 

“Good, and Levi's. Did you order from Levi's? That was dad's favorite, you remember?” Danny continued. He was starting to look drowsy again, adorably scrunching his nose to try to focus on Ward. “Dad used to say all it took for mom to fall in love with him was one dinner at Levi's.”

Ward looked at Danny differently then, softer, sadder. “Yeah, Danny. I remember.” Danny's hold on wakefulness was slipping, even his hand loosened, though Ward still held on.

With one final, “ _I miss ‘em, Ward_.” Danny drifted off to sleep again, leaving a somber Ward, holding vigil.

“ _I know, Danny_.” Ward answered anyway. He stood again, brushing off dust that wasn’t there, before clearing his throat and moving to the windows.

“He's pretty amazing, you know?” Claire said into the too quiet room, speaking to Ward. “I don’t know if you’ve ever seen him do his thing, but he's pretty awesome.”

“Yes, I'm well aware of Danny's awesomeness, thank you.” Ward answered without turning back.

“I just mean, He's not like the others. Vigilantes tend to be brooding, miserable people,” she made sure to catch Foggy's eye after that one, “They're usually so ready to die for their cause, they can’t see happiness even when it's right in front of them.”

Foggy wasn’t sure what Claire was trying to insinuate, but he suspected he wouldn't like it. She looked at him meaningfully and tilted her head.

“Danny's different.” Ward agreed, turning away from the shattered door. Looked to Foggy and gave him a small private smile, which Foggy immediately returned. “He can still love.”

“I guess some vigilantes are just luckier than others.” A voice called from the darkness of the balcony. Ward spun around in shock, fists already up at the ready. Claire moved faster than he realized she could, pulled her claw thingies from the bag and took position over Danny. 

Foggy felt woefully unprepared as he stared into the dark waiting for the voice to show itself. Nearly peeing himself with relief when an armored red figure walked through the shattered door. He was going to kick Matt’s ass, the showoff. 

“Hello, Foggy. You called?”


	6. First Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Foggy wanted to wring Matt's neck, he just needed to do it first, before any ninjas beat him to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are getting _interesting_! The tiniest actual violence occurs in dis chapter, its over in blink but ya know. Be warned.

“God damn it, Daredevil.” Claire huffed out, being the first to recover. She removed her weapons and threw them to the side as she stepped around a frozen Ward. She hugged Matt before giving the back of his head a tap. “Couldn't ring the doorbell?”

“Didn’t think Mr. Meachum would appreciate a wanted vigilante strolling through the lobby.”

“How considerate.” Ward answered, face expressionless. If Foggy hadn’t been standing directly behind him he would have thought he wasn’t affected at all. As it was, he could see Ward's hands clasped tightly behind his back to keep from fidgeting, posture rod straight. Ward was nervous. He glanced at Matt and spotted his smarmy grin. The asshole was enjoying this.

“That’s the Devil for you, considerate as hell.” Foggy spoke up. “Would you mind unmasking? I called for Matt if I wasn’t mistaken.”

That wiped off Matt’s smirk, but he nodded and pushed the mask off anyway. 

“Holy shit, it really is you.” Ward turned to Foggy, “Murdock is _Daredevil_?”

“Yeah. It’s a whole thing.” Foggy tried a joke, smiling softly, but Ward only frowned.

“How? Ha-have you been _faking_ blindness?” Ward sounded scandalized and Matt snorted. 

“I'm quite blind assure you.” Matt took a step closer only to pause when Ward visibly flinched. He tilted his head in a familiar move and Foggy realized Matt must be listening to Ward's reaction; his heart or blood flow or breath. Whatever it was he did to decipher the world and wondered just how many millions of times he saw Matt make the same movement over the years. 

“In so many ways.” Claire agreed as she made her way back to Danny. Who had begun to rumble in his sleep, instinctively trying to sit up.

“Is that Iron Fist?” Matt asked suddenly, quickly following Claire as she tried to settle Danny.

“Who?” Foggy asked.

“Don’t touch him!” Ward barked, surprising the other three. Matt froze hand held just above Danny's forehead. “How do you know that name? Who the hell are you?”

Ward looked to be holding himself back from ripping Matt’s hand off himself. Matt must have read him too, because he lifted his hand and took a careful step back.

“I'm sorry. That was how he introduced himself to me.”

Ward took a last step, bringing him right up beside the couch and Foggy. He didn’t relax much though, just watched Matt with a downright suspicious look. Claire looking between them, and back and forth.

Foggy set his arm on Wards forearm, drawing the man's attention. His eyes were worried and the slightest bit manic at the edges. Foggy waited until Ward nodded almost imperceptibly.

“He was attacked.” Foggy told Matt, “but there’s more. We- we should talk alone.”

Matt tilted his head, forehead furrowing. “Okay.” He sounded wary, which just made Foggy's stomach do sick jumpies. God help him.

“ _Foggy_ ,” Ward gripped Foggy's arm before he'd made it a foot. 

This was where Ward made his mistake. Foggy's gasp made Matt move faster than he was able to catch, and before he or Ward could react Matt twisted Ward's wrist off and behind his back. 

“Matt stop! What the hell are you thinking!” Foggy yelled, shoving Matt away from Ward. Claire jumped in then, angrily wrapping her arms around Ward just as the man had turned back around to retaliate. Eyes wild, face red with fury, he struggled wildly, taking dragging steps towards Matt who had frozen in place. “Ward stop, hey look at me! Ward! Please!”

He looked Foggy in the eye again and after a few tense seconds collapsed back into Claire. The woman dragged him well away then. Whispering into a clearly shocked and shaken Ward's ear until they disappeared around the corner.

Foggy immediately turned to Matt, fuming. “What the fuck is wrong with you? The man's brother lands almost dead on his doorstep and when we call for your help you decide to _attack him_?”

“He…” Matt croaked, looking shocked at his own actions.

“Damn it, Matt. We have so many bigger problems, people might be dying, and you’re acting like a drunk frat boy. Grow up, be the hero you pretend to be for once.” Foggy turned away in impotent anger, he was tired. He spoke to the shattered doorway. “Danny was taken down by one of Gao's assassins.”

“Was it Nobu?” Matt asked immediately, voice flat.

“It was Elektra.” Foggy felt the weight of the words crash down onto the room, heavier than a sun. 

The silence grew empty, and when Foggy turned to Matt, he found no one. The room was empty except for him and Danny. 

He had gone between one breath and the next. Foggy raced to the balcony. It was empty. 

“Shit.”

 

“What do you think he’ll do?” Claire asked, watching Foggy pace wildly around the room. He stopped to give her a _look_. She rolled her eyes in response. “I mean right now, where do you think he actually went from here.”

Foggy paused his strides to think about it. Where would Matt go? If anything could be less predictable Foggy couldn’t imagine what. “I don’t know. I haven’t been around Matt in a long time, obviously. He's… different.”

“You know Matt didn’t mean to do what he did.” Claire said softly, it was the closest Foggy had seen her to bashful since meeting her.

“That’s the problem.” Foggy answered, taking a seat beside her on the couch. They’d taken Danny into the guestroom, after he finally knocked out for good. “He never does.”

“That’s not fair, he’s at least tried to do good. More than most.”

“At what cost? Matt has done so much it’s easy to forget his failings. His pride and stubbornness, the martyr complex. He’s so busy saving the world he lives in he forgets that not all of us do. When everyone around him comes out worse for meeting him, it’s just exhausting to keep making excuses. I’ve been making them since I met him.”

Foggy felt a frog in his throat, he hated saying those things as much as they needed to be said. He loved Matt so much, he couldn’t fit these feelings of hatred beside that love.

“I’m tired Claire. I’m tired of looking at him and seeing less Matt and more Daredevil each time. He’s going to get himself killed or worse tonight if he has his way.”

They sat side by side, each in their own world as they contemplated. 

“We need to wait for Danny to wake up. Hope Matt doesn’t find anything until then. Maybe we can cut him off if we get wherever Danny was attacked.” Claire proposed. Foggy didn’t like the idea but had no other ideas himself.

“Matt can find a rabbit in a snowstorm. It wont take him long to find a lead, even if he has to check every shit hole in this city. We need something quicker.”

“Like what?” she asked.

“Let me get back to you.” Foggy pushed off the couch and headed down to where Ward had retreated since Matt pulled his Houdini act.

Ward’s bedroom was oddly unlived in compared to the rest of the apartment. The walls were bare and painted a muted grey, furniture straight out of a catalog, and impeccably clean. Ward was sat in a chair in the corner, a fluffy thing that he sunk way too deeply into, glass in his hand. He glanced at Foggy and straightened up.

“How’s the wrist?” Foggy figured he might as well dive right in, get into the ugly parts right away.

“Who knew Murdock had it in him.” Ward answered as Foggy sat across from him on a corner of the bed. Foggy snorted and Ward smirked.

“Tell me about it.” 

Ward looked at him then, carefully. “Have you always known?” Ward didn’t waste time either apparently. 

“No. Not until we took down Wilson Fisk. I found out by finding him bleeding to death on the floor.”

“Were you angry?” He set the glass on the floor beside the chair.

“Yes.” Was all he said.

Ward looked exhausted as he stared off, eyes bloodshot, dark bags under his eyes and a half beard.

“I'm sorry- I…” 

Foggy caught his eye, laying his hand on his Ward’s, in what was quickly becoming a familiar comfort. “What happened with The Hand?” Ward’s hand tightened for a moment.

If Foggy was going to understand Ward he had to go the source. He could guess some pieces, the blood and the stranger aversion. Other's, he'd need help understanding. He was quiet for so long he thought Ward would stay silent altogether. 

“This is the worst first date topic.” Ward joked, making Foggy chuckle. He took a deep breath and looked Foggy in the eye as he started talking. 

He started from the beginning. Danny’s death, His father's, his subsequent resurrection. The orders Ward had to follow to keep him. Having to hide it all from Joy. Recounting Danny's miraculous return, and his father’s final decent into madness. He told Foggy about killing his father, eyes eagle sharp for any reaction. Foggy used every ounce of will in his body to keep himself from doing just that. Just let Ward talk. 

He continued onto his father’s second return from the grave and the Danny’s involvement in putting him down. Making very sure to be clear that it had been Ward himself that had finally taken Harold's life for good. It was a horrific story. Made Foggy’s shit look like a weekend bender in comparison.

“For fuck's sake, say something.” Ward’s deep voice was a rumbling croak by then. Foggy's only response was pulling Ward to a standing position and walking backwards around the bed.

“You, Ward Meachum, are one of the most amazing people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.” Foggy said, not an ounce of humor in his tone.

“Come on-“

“Hey,” holding Ward’s hands he could see the fear and doubt in his eyes. He wanted to cement this moment in Ward’s memory, so he’d never doubt the words. “What you did… you are, a good man, Ward.”

Foggy had two seconds to brace himself before Ward was on him, mouth warm and insistent. Hands finding Foggy’s hair again, and a deep groan escaping his chest. Ward kissed like he was drowning for it, breath heavy. 

Falling backwards onto the deliciously sinful pillow top really made the kiss that much better too. 10/10 would highly recommend. Foggy’s toes curled with the sudden want that flushed through him, before a throat clearing in the doorway cut short the goings on.

“If it’s Murdock, I will murder him. I hope you understand.”

“Completely.” Foggy answered, peeking around Ward’s shoulder and seeing Claire, grinning too widely. “It’s Claire.”

“Damn.” Ward regretted, as he crawled backwards off Foggy, holding his handout to him. They made their way out of the room, passing by Claire. “Ms. Temple.”

“Mr. Meachum.” She caught Foggy’s eye and received a lascivious wink. He snorted.

The scene that he came up on in the living room was not what he expected. Danny Rand sat on the couch, happily eating away from the dozen cartons of food on the coffee table before him. He was joined by who he could only assume was Colleen, both smiling and chatting happily.

“How in the hell are you awake?” Ward asked first, Danny’s head snapping up and grinning unabashedly. 

“Hi Ward! You know Colleen, Colleen you remember Ward.” 

The girl smiled bemusedly at Danny, nodding along. “Yes I do, Hello Mr. Meachum.” She added just littlest bit of _stank_ at the end of 'Meachum' but ward didn’t look impressed.

“So you’re Danny’s girlfriend.” His voice flat and stare dead, he looked like a big bully. Especially when Colleen flushed and fumbled with her fork.

“ _Quit it_ ,” Foggy poked Ward in the side. “Hi there, I’m Franklin. I work for Mr. Meachum and Rand.”

She took his hand and smiled easier. “Hi, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to see you again, Mr. Nelson.” Danny spoke up, and call him paranoid but a 'Mr. Nelson' from say Ward sounded fine, but damn if Danny's didn’t make him feel like a principal of a middle school.

“You too, Mr. Rand.”

“Danny, please. And thank you for tonight, it was kind of touch and go there for a second.” 

“Of course, you gave us quite a scare.” 

“Yes, yes we all love Danny, very good now, How the hell are you awake?” Ward interrupted taking the take out from Danny, and taking an obnoxiously big bite of steak and potatoes. 

“Hey!” he gave up immediately though and reached for a salmon and greens dish. “I’ve been working on my balancing techniques. Driving out the wound by sacrificing energy. I can only do so much but, at least I can eat.”

Ward seemed equally displeased and impressed with Danny’s answer. He passed the steak and potatoes to Foggy before grabbing a chicken dish and digging in.

“Really Mr. Nelson, I was terrified before I got here. I was still pretty aware in the beginning and you were awesome.”

“I’m just glad I was here to help. Claire, did all the work.” Claire nodded in agreement and Danny laughed.

“Oh yeah, Claire's the best.” He smiled at her, and damn if it wasn’t the sincerest smile he'd ever seen. As a lawyer, this much honesty was almost unsettling. “I’m just glad Ward’s hot date was gone by the time I crashed in.”

Claire smiled gleefully, and Ward instantly clammed up. Eyes widening comically.

“Shut up, Danny.”

“No seriously, you should have seen him yesterday, all nervous and shy. It was kinda spooky.”

Ward was fully red in face, staring daggers at Danny, as the other man ate and spoke happily. He seemed to be weighing the merits of throwing his fork at Danny. 

“Spooky?” Claire asked, enjoying this way too much. Ward sent a dagger or two her way too, for good measure.

“You know, weird. But we figured it out together. Roses and dinner from Levi's, huh Ward?”

“For the love of god please stop talking.” Ward pleaded.

“Aw, Ward it’s okay, even if the date didn’t go well, it’s about getting out there, remember?”

Claire couldn’t hold it anymore and She burst out laughing. Loud guffaws and slapping hands. Ward decided to just bury his head in his hands. And Colleen looked confused, glancing between the three.

“What? Oh, Ward. Please don’t tell me, she stood you up? That's rough man. It's okay we can try again, what kind of name is _Foggy_ anyway.”

Ward looked to Foggy for help, Foggy only smiled and shrugged, Ward smiled tiredly back.

“Actually Danny, the date went great. In fact it went so good Foggy decided to stick around. Would you like an introduction?” Ward baited Danny, poor Danny. Foggy saw Colleen figure it out and squeeze Danny’s hand.

“Of course!” Danny laughed.

“Danny Rand, Foggy Nelson. Foggy Nelson, Danny Rand.”

It was painful seeing Danny put together the pieces. He looked to Foggy and back to Ward, and back again, and one more time, before his eyes widened. His mouth dropped and his face reddened like a thermometer in the desert.

The satisfied smile on Ward’s face was well worth a little bullying. 

Danny looked to Colleen then, whispering furiously. “What do I do?”

“You’re asking me?” she whispered back. Foggy hid his laugh in Ward’s shoulder. 

Danny looked up bashfully, turning up the puppy eyes up to 100, in what had to be a purposeful attack against Foggy's very soul. “It’s okay Danny.”

“I suck so much.” Was all Danny answered.

“Really, Danny. The flowers were beautiful, all 200 of them and dinner,” he said lifting his carton, “is delicious. And here I thought Ward was just that smooth.”

“Please, Ward gets his smooth from me.” Both Claire and Colleen snorted at that.

“Seriously though, how did you end up looking like you lost a fight to a cheese grater?” Claire asked.

Danny looked around at them, setting down his food. “Colleen and I have been tracking down any and all Hand hideouts she could find. They’re everywhere, Belize, France, Tokyo, South Africa… but we’d get to one only for it to lead us to another and another. Two days ago we get a tip that a Hand compound right here in the city was showing activity so we flew back. The reconnaissance didn’t go as smoothly as it could have. I was captured, taken to Gao, but she wasn’t alone like usual. This woman, she was…”

Foggy caught Claire’s look of worry. 

“She was deadly. I mean seriously deadly. In a way I’ve never seen. I didn’t get in one hit. But that’s not all that worries me.”

“What on earth could worry you more?” Ward asked.

“She stopped the Iron Fist. With her palm.” Colleen straightened beside Danny, face gone pale. 

“Did she say anything? The Woman?” Foggy asked, thinking of Matt’s mad dash going on in the city right now.

“Yeah, right after she stopped the Iron Fist. It must have taken something from her to do that too, she said a name.”

“Let me take wild guess… Matthew.” Foggy expected the nod. He looked at Claire. “I think I have a plan. Do you still have Jones' number?”

Claire did not look confident but nodded. 

“Good, so Colleen, how are you with heights?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually really love Matt. Like so much. Seriously.


	7. Reminiscent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ward was not happy with his master plan job assignment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ward's POV because I thought why not dive every single fan trope in one fic. Warnings for violence in this chapter, like for real this time.

Foggy’s plan was simple, if somewhat crude. Danny’s girlfriend, and the woman Claire called in, _Jones_ , would stake out the building Danny had been attacked in, from the two roofs adjacent. Foggy would join Claire in the building directly across from The Hand, an unused warehouse in East Harlem. How they planned to spot a fucking _ninja_ at night, or stop him once they found him. Ward hadn't the slightest clue. 

With Danny out of commission, Ward doubted a Karate teacher and a biker chick would be enough to bring down Daredevil but when he brought his concerns to Foggy, the man only responded with a smile and a shrug of the shoulders.

“Matt's trained yeah, but apparently so is Colleen, and Jessica can more than handle herself. Anyway we don’t have to knock him out or anything. We just need to get his attention.” He explained as they prepared to head out. 

“And then?” Ward had asked. Foggy had looked at him with the same soft smile he had given Ward all night. A warm curve of lips that he couldn’t help but stare at every chance he had, because Ward was apparently weak and horny in equal measures, but didn’t answer.

Ward, however, was lucky enough to be assigned the worst job of the night, sitting in a car a block and a half away, babysitting Danny.

“You’re not _babysitting_ me.” Danny grumbled from the passenger seat.

“Oh, I'm sorry. Did I say that out loud?” Ward asked innocently, taking pleasure in Danny's huff.

“Yes, and you’re not babysitting. We are both the getaway car.”

“Right, I forgot this is one of those multi-driver Escalades.”

“You’re still grumpy about the whole date thing aren’t you?” Danny asked, scratching at his neck, a small cut too near his jugular had been bugging him the whole stakeout.

“Do you mean when you crashed the middle of it by almost dying, or when you called my date's name stupid?” 

“I said I was sorry.” Danny responded, voice small. Ward looked over and saw the man almost pouting into his lap, for gods sake.

“I know Danny, I’m just…” Ward didn’t like this plan. They had no idea if the Hand was still inside, and Foggy and Claire were just sitting across the street from them. The streets were empty and silent, not that it mattered anyway, with _Ninjas_. Ward blew out a tired breath

“Foggy seems great, though.”

“We’re not talking about this.” The last thing he wanted to do was bring Danny into his romantic life again. He must have been insane to call Danny in the first place after Foggy had proposed the date. Damn Joy, sleeping in middle of the night in China that day, selfishly.

“Oh, come on. Really, he's great. It’s nice.”

“Nice.” Ward repeated. Foggy was nice. He had always been _nice_. 

Always smiling as he and Murdock walked into class, and laughing loudly as he explained the difference between something called a charmander and a cinder-quill, or some other such nonsense.

His father had called on him less back then. Hadn’t let Ward have too much freedom even in school but he had been freer. Ward’s average grades did nothing but grate on his father’s nerves. Ward was only proving his worthlessness, letting a blind orphan and a charity case like Foggy out preform him, he remembered his dad saying. The next day he received a text message from his father to appear at the library that night to meet with his new study group.

He never told Harold, but he was always grateful for that order. It had let him meet Foggy and distract himself for two hours a week. He could allow himself to enjoy Foggy's ridiculous stories and tall tales, at least privately. He wasn’t much of a laugher back then.

The man had a gift for storytelling and always had the group in stitches, while somehow still raising everyone’s G.P.A. by a point. Back when he missed Joy, or was hating himself too much he could at least look forward to that. 

He hadn’t had the balls to flat out ask him out in the beginning. Not only because he thought Foggy would say no, but because he might say yes. 

Ward was a fucking mess. He knew it, he was a son of a bitch who didn’t give a shit about other people, and none of that is what he wanted Foggy to think of him. If that was all Foggy could see when he looked at Ward, he'd rather not be seen at all. So he made sure he wasn’t.

“How'd you meet?” Danny asked because he apparently just could not take a hint to save his life.

“He's our lawyer.” Ward answered, while not actually answering, hoping Danny would drop it.

“Oh.” Danny paused, before inevitably continuing. “He seems really worried about Daredevil. Do you know how they know each other?”

“ _Danny_.”

“Sorry.” 

Ward felt bad, which was new, but he was just not in the mood to talk. He scanned the street again, checking his phone. Nothing.

“I wonder how Daredevil, knows this Elektra.” Danny asked, quieter. 

“Here's a better question, how the fuck do _you_ know Daredevil?” Ward was still had trouble consolidating the Murdock he knew with the man he saw tonight.

Murdock had been, for a lack of a better word, a shitsack in school. Ward had never understood how he and Foggy had been such close friends. 

Where Foggy had been all smiles and laughter anywhere he went, Murdock was a dour killjoy with a sharp tongue that reduced debate opponents to stuttering messes within three turns.

“Oh, um, he kind of caught me using my power a few months back.” Danny said sheepishly, before shrinking away from Ward’s look.

“I thought we agreed you'd stop using it in public! It’s too damn dangerous!”

“I know-“

“Not just for you, Danny. Joy and I are at risk too. You’ve been too damn lucky already, it’s only a matter of time before you attract even more of the bad kind of attention.”

“I know, I'm sorry Ward, but it was to save someone. There was this burning building-“

“Jesus, Danny.” Ward rolled his eyes.

“It's okay though, I mean, from what I read, he’s a good guy. Right?” Danny looked to Ward. It was in moments like this when he recognized Danny the most. When he turned to Ward, eyes wide, looking for reassurance. He could see the child that Danny used to be, and he'd always be grateful that he did.

“Just because somebody puts on a mask and calls themselves a hero, doesn’t mean they’re good. Like tonight. What do you think we’re doing here? Daredevil is coming here for Elektra, not to stop her, not to make sure she doesn't hurt someone else. He’s coming to get her out.”

Danny's brows furrowed, he hadn't thought about that, Ward could tell.

“He didn’t give a shit that you almost died at her hand tonight.” Ward was a piece of shit. What was he doing? He shouldn’t be saying these things to Danny, not now.

“But… Foggy trusts him.” Danny tried to argue. Ward knew he should shut up now but he just couldn’t stop talking. 

“And you trusted me, but I was willing to let you die to save Joy.”

Danny didn’t respond then. He stared silently out the windshield and scratched his neck instead. 

“I was never mad about that. I would have done the same thing.” Danny said after a whole five minutes. 

“No you wouldn’t.” Ward answered immediately. “You would have found a way to save us all or died trying.”

Danny knew Ward was telling the truth, though he didn’t seem to like it, he didn’t respond for another five minutes.

“So, what I just shouldn’t trust anyone, ever?” Danny asked.

Should he? Ward knew better than anyone there was no such thing as absolute trust. Even Joy, the person he trusted most in the world had her secrets and had betrayed that trust more than once. He was ready to say as much when he looked over to Danny.

He was looking worse for wear, Ward realized Danny wasn’t actually doing as well as he was acting. Ward could see the sweat on his brow, the slight tremble in his hands, eyes slightly unfocused. Only for Ward to add doubt and worry to his eyes, Ward was an asshole.

He pulled a bottle of water from the center console and uncapped it before handing it Danny. “No. I’m not saying not to trust, that was shitty. Just be careful, Danny. You and Joy… you’re…”

“I know Ward. You, Joy, and Colleen are the most important things to me. I know I haven’t been here much these past months.” 

“You’re a _Holy Warrior_ , Danny. I understand the deal.”

“Still, I could call more, if that’s, you know, okay.” Danny was looking at his hands, pulling out all the stops for this guilt trip. Ward rolled his eyes, amused regardless.

“We'd like that.” Ward was getting soft, seeing Danny smile eased some of his current anxiety. 

“Cool, cool.” Danny tried to sound nonchalant as he finished up the bottle. His hands still weren’t steady, and Ward wondered how much Danny would argue if he dropped him at home. Neither of them were contributing to the stakeout anyway. “I am glad about Mr. Nelson, though. He’s kinda badass. You deserve someone good.”

Ward would never tell, but he was pleased. Foggy having Danny’s approval wasn’t something he thought he’d care about, but here he was, caring. This made Ward brave suddenly.

“I uh, I told him about Harold,” Ward stared straight ahead at empty street, he could feel Danny’s stare on the side of his head. “I told him about… what I’ve done. Everything I’ve done.”

“What did he say?” 

Ward thought about the look on Foggy's face when he called Ward a good man. Everything in him had wanted to ask him to just say it again, instead Ward just jumped him because once more, Ward was weak and horny. He didn’t answer.

“Well, good. Honesty's important.” Danny reached for the center console, puling out a second bottle of water. “He seems to really like you.”

Ward didn’t respond, but smiled.

“Wow, _that’s_ new.”

“Shut up, Danny.”

Danny laughed. “Seriously though, Foggy seems great. The fact that he knows Claire, and Daredevil, and whoever that Jessica woman is, and now me, I guess, is pretty cool. And he gives great hugs.”

“When the hell did you hug Foggy?” Ward asked. Danny smiled unashamedly. “Why?”

“It was when I first came back, he picked something up for Hogarth. Said I looked blue, which I was, told me everything would be okay, then we hugged.”

“There’s not one part of that story I feel comfortable with.” Ward was back to scanning the street as he spoke, deciding to fuck it and text Foggy. Danny laughed again, hand going to his side and flinching, served him right.

 **Danny’s killing me. Anything?**

**Be nice. Nothing yet.** Foggy answered after only a few seconds, not that Ward was keeping track, obviously.

**Easy for you to say. You get Claire.**

**And you get a warm car. I’m freezing.**

**If Murdock doesn’t show up, what’s plan b?**

**He’ll show up.**

**I shouldn’t have been such an asshole. Sorry.**

**None of this is bcuz of you. Matt needs no help wen making bad decisions.**

**I didn’t help.**

**Neither did I. I said some f'ed up things, this is such a mess.**

**Some date.**

**Regret saying yes yet?**

**No. You regret asking?**

**Nope.**

**Good.**

**I agree.**

**As do I.**

**Very well.**

**Quite.**

“Okay, I take back what I said, anyone who can make Ward Meachum smile that widely is not just great. They’re amazing.” Danny announced, smiling at Ward. 

He set his phone aside and took a good look at Danny. Less than six hours he was dying on Ward’s floor, and now he looked fine. A little green around the gills, but definitely much better. 

When Claire had gone to check on Danny’s wounds just before they left, it was clear he’d deeply underestimated Danny’s gift. The cuts had looked at least a week old, the smaller ones healing and disappearing altogether, only the faintest of scars in their place. The sickening mass of bruising, became only the slightest yellow discoloration. His face cleared up altogether.

The worst of the damage was still there but nowhere near as bad as it should have been. Danny was ravenous as they planned and waited for reinforcements, finishing off almost seven dinners himself. Ward could understand why now. He wondered just how much of Danny’s and Murdock’s talents coincided.

“What are Daredevil’s powers?” Ward decided to ask. He hadn’t asked Foggy how Murdock even did it. Too distracted by the fact that _Murdock_ of all the people in New York became a crazy vigilante. It was always the quiet ones.

“Oh, I don’t really know. We only talked for a second, burning building and all. But I mean he was there, trying to save people, so I kinda just assumed, I don’t know, the basics? Speed, strength, all that stuff.”

Ward knew there had to be more, a blind man couldn’t just get super strength and become Daredevil. He lifted his phone to text Foggy again, when it started ringing. Claire. 

“Get here now!” He was already peeling out towards the building, turning a sharp right and flying down the street.

“Ward! What’s happening?”

If Ward hadn’t seen what happened next with his own eyes he never would have believed it. The car skidded to a stop three buildings down, because that is where Jessica _landed after jumping off the roof_.

“Holy Shit.” Danny responded for both of them.

She ran to the car, an unconscious body thrown over each shoulder. How the hell did Foggy and Claire know so many goddamn vigilantes? She opened the back of the SUV and more or less just tossed them in. 

“The others!?” Ward yelled as she made to get in the back. 

“Colleen should be coming out of… there.” She pointed to a shattered window in the building The Hand was supposed to be in, second floor. Not even a ten seconds later Colleen flew out of it in a graceful dive before catching a street light and sliding down it like it was a fireman pole. Ward pulled up next to her and she jumped in.

“What happened, where are Foggy and Claire?” Danny asked as Ward saw the doors slam open on the abandoned building. The moment he saw them was a relief so short, it lived and died between two breaths. Foggy was following behind Claire as they sprinted to the car, when the shadows surrounding them came to life and swallowed them both. 

Ward, Jessica, and Colleen all burst from the car. “Protect Daredevil!” Ward yelled back to Danny.

For as many jokes as Ward tended to make about ninjas, actually seeing Claire kick one in the gut before bitch slapping it to the ground, would always be one of Ward’s most surreal moments. 

He immediately found Foggy in the middle of the fray, not so much kicking ass but just straight up swinging Ward’s metal bat as hard as he could at anything that came within striking distance. Ward ran to the man nearest Foggy, flicking out his riot baton and cracking it down on the man’s knee. 

“Where’s Danny?” Foggy yelled, connecting his bat with someone’s gut.

“Car! Move!” Ward couldn’t count or make sense of their attackers. For every one Ward took down, another two appeared. There were too many. He couldn’t see Foggy or any of the others as he swung madly. 

Ward yelled each time his weapon stuck something, breaking bones, hands, knees, elbows. He couldn’t see Danny. He couldn’t see Foggy. 

One of the attackers grabbed him from behind, stopping his hits.

“Foggy!” He managed to scream as he was buried under. 

For Ward that minute of darkness passed like a century. He couldn’t breathe, Foggy was going to be killed, Danny was a sitting duck, this was it he thought. He wished he had called Joy that day. He hadn’t even told her about the date. She’d never know why her brother disappeared, was his last thought before blessed dark.


	8. Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny is having just the worst day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kinda short today. Working on the final chapters now. Enjoy.

Danny’s hands wouldn’t stop shaking. They wouldn’t grip the rope tight enough to tie a knot properly, and he nearly cried with the strain of trying to steady them. It took him nearly a minute to finish even one. Mouth trembling he whined and tried the next.

His body was on fire, an unforgiving pain shooting up and all through his sides and back where the slashes and bruising were the worst. He needed to eat, rest, and meditate soon to keep from collapsing altogether. He couldn’t afford to lose consciousness now. 

He was growing more frustrated the more he fumbled with his trembling hands, which only made that much harder. Angrily balling them and taking a quick breath. His lungs felt filled with stone as he dragged in what never felt like enough air.

“Come on,” Danny whispered furiously as he restarted on the, thankfully, last knot. His lips were trembling again, vision blurring as he fought off the rush of fear. 

_He left them behind._

He gagged for the fourth time after finishing the last knot. He didn’t know whether it was from the blinding pain or from the sickening guilt and fear but he was spitting up nothing but acid and spit now.

He tried to stand and move to the wall but couldn’t summon the strength. 

He had found what he hoped to the gods was an abandoned building in Hell’s Kitchen. Ceiling leaking as a rainstorm thundered angrily outside.

He’d dragged the unconscious bodies from the SUV into the building and up two floors to a bare office space that had been all but forgotten for years. 

Body screaming as he pushed through the pain and forced his body to sustain him, pulling from his power without balancing his energy. 

Danny had tried to follow Ward, Colleen, and Jessica when Claire and Foggy had been overtaken but Ward’s order had frozen him. His hesitation cost him when he was torn from the driver’s seat by a masked man. 

He was thrown on the ground and kicked twice before he recovered. His hits were slow but precise enough to bring down his attacker. It was when he turned to continue fighting that he heard Colleen's scream. She was between two fighters slashing with her katana like a machine. She yelled at him to run. Eyes fierce and desperate. _Run now! Danny run!_ He knew she was right. There were dozens of men moving in on them now. They had Jessica, Daredevil had no one. He retreated.

He was paying for it now as his body was racked with violent shakes bordering on seizures. His power taking what Danny hadn’t given. 

He collapsed altogether against a wall and couldn’t control his body enough even sit up. He heard cries echoing off the stripped, graffitied walls and realized they were his. Violent sobs tearing through him as he convulsed of the ground. 

He had managed to tie Elektra to a steel beam with the rock climbing equipment Colleen had used tonight. Wrapping his bloody shirt around her hands as tightly as he could. 

Daredevil was still unconscious. Lying prone where Danny had set him down as carefully as he was able. He hadn’t been sure whether to tie him down too, and now he couldn’t if he wanted to. He turned on his back with a painful convulsion and stayed that way. 

_Danny had left them behind._

He cried in pain as he tried to drag in a breath of air. He had to concentrate, or he was going to lose against his wounds.

He stared at the ceiling as he started to relax his muscles. Letting the building pain take over his body without fighting against it. Beginning with his fingers, and moving up his arms, he relinquished control. His head felt like it was in a vice grip as he let go the last piece of himself. Until all he could feel was lightning in his veins.

Danny used that scorching pain to center himself. 

In K'un-Lun, he had been taught that pain and injury were not a hindrance. _A warrior uses even his weaknesses as weapons_. He was taught how to use pain as an inverse to peace. Disconnecting himself from his body by yielding to it. He learned how to breathe without taking a breath, and how to bend his body and soul to his will absolutely, and he would master this if it killed him.

Time passed, or didn’t, Danny couldn’t tell. He couldn’t hear, he couldn’t smell, his eyes blind to the world around him. His breaths lasted centuries and moments. He was nothing and absolute at the same time. 

When he opened his eyes and the world rushed back, he took his first breath in hours and was new again. His body was a bruised bleeding mess but he could feel his energies buzzing just under the skin, invigorating his cells and balancing again.

He heard a groan and his eyes shot to Daredevil standing over him, hand against the wall and barely awake himself.

“Iron Fist?”

“Daredevil.” Danny was able to stand now, and he did, carefully. Steadying Daredevil as he looked blankly ahead, Danny had chosen not remove his helmet, out of respect. “It’s okay, come on sit down.”

“What happened?” 

Danny didn’t know what to say, didn’t think he could even if he did. It didn’t take long for Daredevil to realize they weren’t alone. He stiffened before immediately moving to her side.

“Elektra, oh God.” He lifted her head his hands, brushing away her wet hair.

“I had to bind her.” Danny said to him. Daredevil’s hands trembled as he ran his fingers over face. “She…”

Danny had almost died because of her and it struck him that he was afraid. He had bound her first because he had been most afraid of her waking up. Danny realized he hadn’t actually feared any one opponent like this in years. Foolishly.

“I- I understand.” Daredevil said after a minute. Danny let out a breath of relief. “How… what happened?”

“We tried to stop you.” Danny’s throat was dry and he could still feel his extremities aching. “But something went wrong, we sprang the trap they had set for you.”

Danny had been captured by Gao's men because when he had found what he had thought was Elektra's cell, chained to a wall in the basement, he had thought she was a prisoner. He used the Iron Fist to free her only for her to immediately attack. 

Elektra was viper quick and ruthlessly vicious. Eyes feral and empty, she took him down before he knew she was a threat.

“What do you mean?” he paused to look around, head tilting to the right. “Where are the others?”

Danny’s heart raced. “The Hand.” His throat closed and he couldn’t swallow through the lump. Daredevil jumped up and backed him into the wall.

“Where are they?” he yelled startling Danny. He looked at Daredevil then. His eyes were hidden behind his mask, but his mouth was a feral snarl. Danny lost his cool.

He punched Daredevil in the face. No form, no method, just balled his fist in fury, and clocked the man in the jaw. 

The shock of the hit was enough to get him on the floor and Danny stared, just as shocked. He’d never raised a fist against someone without provocation, it was against Law.

“The Hand has them.” Alive, he knew.

“How?”

“I left them behind.” Saying the words aloud made him feel sick. “There was an ambush. I couldn’t…-“

“Why?” Daredevil asked desperately.

“To save you." Was all he could whisper out. 

Daredevil stayed silent. They were wasting time. They needed to go back now. Danny was nowhere near full strength, in fact that punch tired him out enough that he leaned back against the wall, but they had to go. Colleen, Ward, Claire, Jessica, and Foggy were all in danger, The Hand was unpredictable on their best day, Danny stealing their greatest warrior would only make things worse.

“Find something to shove in her mouth. We have to leave.”

“Excuse me?” Daredevil sounded positively dangerous at Danny’s orders, but frankly he was starting to care less and less.

“She’s too dangerous to travel with, even bound. And I need your help to get the others out.”

“I’m not leaving her here. Tied like an animal.”

Danny looked at what he could see of Daredevil’s face. His mouth was a hard line, his hands were balled into fists. He knew he was being callus, but they just didn’t have time. He hated it. He approached Daredevil and knelt.

“My friends lives are in danger. They gave themselves up for us, Daredevil.” He bowed his head, he was too afraid to continue. “They have Foggy.”

Daredevil snapped to attention then. Danny didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, realizing Ward had been right. Daredevil wasn’t a hero, he didn’t care about the others. He would help because of Foggy, even after causing this mess. He shook his head to clear it, now wasn’t the time. 

“Where are they?” Daredevil finally asked. He moved to Elektra again, who still hadn’t regained consciousness.

“East Harlem, where you found Elektra. The Hand's been moving from one burrow to another for months now, but they wouldn’t move now.”

“How do you know that?” 

“We have her.” Daredevil paused as he raised his hand to her face again. “They know neither of us would hurt her outright.” 

“Why… why didn’t you kill her already? She’s Hand. She nearly killed you.”

“Because I don’t do that.” Danny was realizing his first impression of Daredevil had been a complete lie. Did he really believe Danny would kill his girlfriend as she lay unconscious. “Do you?”

Daredevil stood, and Danny could see why Ward had warned him away from The Devil Hell’s Kitchen. He looked dangerous, back straight as a column, armored and masked, it wasn’t hard to see why Daredevil was feared. 

“I did. Once.” 

Danny stared. 

They didn’t have time, but as he looked at the them, Daredevil laying a soft kiss at Elektra’s temple, he could at least understand. He remembered kissing Colleen in the rain, as Davos fumed, thinking he had almost lost her to The Hand. That kiss had been like a freefall. Terrifying and thrilling. Daredevil actually had lost Elektra, Foggy had told him.

“She… She said your name.”

“When?” Daredevil looked to him, if Danny could see his eyes he knew they’d be sad and desperate.

“During our fight,” Danny remembered.

Danny had been taken to Gao after Elektra attacked him in the basement, and he saw her dragged away too, back to her cell. Gao had laughed at him, called him an ignorant child; saving a perfect stranger for no reason.

“You could have reached me.” Gao told him, smiling benevolently. Her warm hand on his cheek as he kneeled before her. “Why did you try to save her, Danny?”

“I thought she was your prisoner. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

“You are lying Mr. Rand, I can see it. In those big blue eyes, I can see the truth as easily as if you were to yell it. You didn’t save her to fight with you. Why did you try to save her?”

“Because she needed to be saved.”

Gao laughed again. She tapped her cane twice and with a swoosh the room filled with guards escorting Elektra. She wore what looked like the clothes from the sanitarium. Her hair hung in her face and her eyes were dead to world. She didn’t look like she even knew where she was.

“Elektra.” Gao called. Immediately the woman snapped to attention, eyes sharply alert, and impeccable stance at the ready. “Kill him.”

Elektra was a force of nature. Where ever Danny thought she would be and attack from, was never where she actually struck. She perverted an older style of The Crane, fast hits followed by ruthless kicks. She moved like the wind. 

Danny tried to fight back only to grip at empty air and swing at nothing. He took hit after hit, his face, torso and back were all getting beat to hell. 

Elektra unsheathed her sais and he knew he couldn’t beat her without the Iron Fist. He managed to pull power to his fist and disarm her after she had already slashed Danny to ribbons. 

It was here that he knew he would never win against her. Not like this, not here. She was a Living Weapon in a sick reflection of Iron Fist. 

He managed to evade her long enough to summon the fist a second time and swung at Elektra in fearful desperation. She did nothing more than raise her palm to stop him, and she did stop him. The Fist extinguished and the force knocked them clear across the room from each other. He recovered before her and ran to jump on the advantage, half out of his mind from pain already. 

When he neared her though he saw her eyes. They looked around wildly, confusion and fear warring on her features. She saw him approaching and her eyes widened, she smiled. “ _Matthew_.”

He stopped in his tracks and Gao spoke again, to her guard this time. “Kill him.”

The silent fighters that stood against the walls moved in. Danny was too far from Elektra to try to take her with him, and he was too injured to fight back now, so he ran, jumping from a second story window.

He saw Daredevil give Her one last careful caress before straightening out again. “We need a plan. Gao wont tolerate being infiltrated three times in the same day.”

“We need help. I’m not anywhere near well enough to fight and we don’t have time to wait around until I am.”

“I know someone.” Daredevil then did something Danny did not like even a little bit, he smiled. “Can you punch through reinforced steel walls?”


	9. Coalesce

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessica deduces, Luke reminisces, and Matt remembers.

Jessica needed to change her number, or at least start screening her calls better. It was starting to become a problem. Civilians yes, Claire, who apparently knows every goddamn vigilante in the city, no.

She knew owing and paying back favors was her bread and butter, but fighting fucking ninjas in Harlem at one in the morning was asking a little much. The fuckers had knives coming out of their goddamn ears, for fucks sake.

Whatever the hell these guys were into made, _mind-controlling assholes_ look like a day at the office. She was strong, but these guys were just relentless. Breaking bones with every punch barely slowed them down. 

She saw Colleen taking on three men, big ass sword flying through the air, bloody face furious. The ninjas just gave up at that point and started piling on, if they couldn’t beat her down they’d bury her.

No goddamn way was she expecting this when Claire called. She had to remember to give her a sock in the gut as thanks. 

Jessica could almost see the others through the crowd, no one was doing particularly well. Claire was already buried, so was the rich asshole, and Jeri's guy, Nelson was on his way down already, yelling for his boy as he was buried.

She realized she was all that was left and braced herself, but she didn’t do much before she felt the all to familiar zap of a stun gun. Only, Jessica could take a stun gun, they hurt, but they didn’t bring her down. Not usually at least, _this_ felt like lightning itself was striking down her back. These son’s of bitches had fucking cattle prods, she thought as she passed out. She hated cattle prods.

When she woke again, who knows how long later, it was in a goddamn dungeon. Chained to a wall, hanging off the ground. She was drowsy and too dizzy to focus on much. _She was drugged_. Oh she was going to tear these assholes apart, one by one. 

She pulled on the chains thinking they’d snap like chains tended to do when she pulled on them, but they didn’t, which wasn’t a good thing. She sighed tiredly. 

“Jessica? Are you awake?”

“What the fuck.” Her mouth was dry and cottony. Head spinning sickly as she tried to focus on Colleen's figure hanging in the shadows.

“They drugged you.”

“Yeah, no shit. With what?” 

“I don’t know, I couldn’t see-” she gasped, and groaned, chains rattling.

“How bad are you hurt? Where are the others?” She ask, swallowing slowly.

Whatever they’d slipped her, it was really strong. Her arms hurt from the strain of hanging, toes scraping the ground so she couldn’t get just the right leverage to jump. She hadn’t ached this bad since She and Matt went head to head, the first time.

Her powers were being suppressed. _Who the fuck were these people?_

Jessica couldn’t breathe, these assholes were just asking for it. “Where the hell is Curly Cue? I thought you said he was some badass warrior?”

“Danny is a warrior. He was able to make it out, he has Daredevil and Elektra.”

_These goddamn people._

“Oh, well I’m glad our imminent deaths didn’t slow him down too much.”

“If he had stayed they would have killed him. They would have killed us all.” Colleen wasn’t sounding too good. She wasn’t drugged obviously, but she sounded rough. Spitting what Jessica assumed was blood, seeing as how she couldn’t see much of anything.

“They still will.” Jessica slurred. “The others?”

“I don’t know, I only woke up an hour ago.” She gasped again, voice strained. 

“How do we get out of here? Where the fuck are we?” Straining against her bindings. It was no use, she couldn’t even make a fist.

“Danny said Elektra had been kept two floors down, in a basement. She’d been chained. I think that’s where we are.”

Jessica didn’t know why she’d asked. It didn’t make her feel better to know. Great, they were in a basement in Harlem, captured by a ninja cult, waiting for what Jessica loathed to call help, from fucking Matt and a toddler ninja.

This is what she got for playing nice like Trish kept telling her to. Her sister had long been on the idea that Jessica should come forward more often, all but embrace her hero persona and defend the weak or some such bullshit. Harlem’s own Luke Cage had not been a breachable topic a few months ago, knowing Jessica would just walk out rather than be preached to by Trish. _If Luke can do it, your friend the lawyer, why can’t you?_

Jessica had taken the smallest of small steps to vigilantism, helping an 80 year old woman keep her store safe from shakedowns and suddenly Jessica was a hero. This was how Heroes always ended up. Dead or regretting it. 

Jessica wanted to outright refuse. The last goddamn thing she needed was some Avenger wannabees problems dropped in her lap to deal with because she couldn’t keep her head down, and keep moving. But Trish had been in the room with Jessica when Claire called and there was no fighting against it. If Jessica didn’t go help, Trish would go herself. 

So here she was, in all her superhero glory, fighting the good fight. So worth it.

Colleen's breathing was heavy and labored. If Jessica was hurting for hanging for who knew how long, Colleen must be in agony. “Hey, Colleen?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you see me?”

“Um, yes.”

“How far are we from each other?”

“I’m on the wall right across from you, maybe five feet away?”

Jessica needed to focus. Her aching hands gripped the chains she hung from, and using what was arguably her last bit of energy to begin lifting herself up. She felt like she weighed as much as sun, like the gravity around her was super concentrated, dragging her down to the earth, crushing her under it’s pull. She briefly wondered if this was how regular people always felt. 

“What are you doing?”

Jessica didn’t answer as she continued to climb. 

Jessica tried to control her breathing, like she’d been taught. Shoulders on fire as she made it maybe five feet up the chain. Her hands were shaking as she bent at the waist. Legs straight out she snagged her foot on Colleen’s chains and let go of the chain in her hands. The chains groaned as Jessica used all the leverage her body gave her to pull as hard as she could. Until they finally did and Colleen crumpled to the floor.

She gasped and began gagging up bile as her chest muscles relaxed again. “Thank you-“ a fit of coughing before she could continue. 

“Don’t mention it. Just come help.”

Colleen stood slowly, very slowly, the hanging, plus whatever damage she took on from the fight itself was not doing her any favors. 

She came into focus, and she looked like shit. Eye swollen and dark, face all beat to shit, it wasn’t pretty but she was standing. 

“How, how do we get you down?” Colleen asked, her body was still trembling, hands weak as they reached up and pulled on Jessica's bindings. She was too weak.

“It’s okay, just sit down.”

“But-“

“I can wait, you couldn’t. Just sit.”

Jessica must have had a point because Colleen moved to sit, gasping sharply.

“The others, did you see them?” 

“No, it was just us.” 

When Colleen was rested she'd have her check the door, there was only the thinnest sliver of light coming from behind it but if it was anything less than steel, she might be able to break it.

She was going to kick Matt’s ass too as soon as she saw him again. 

“How long do you think it’s been?” Jessica asked. If it hadn’t been long, she might be burning off the drugs faster. If not, well.

“Its almost 8 am.” Colleen answered moving back to lean against the wall. “They took my weapons, left my watch.”

_Shit._

“I’m never answering my phone again.” 

“Why did you answer this time?” Colleen asked, it was probably best to keep her talking, who knew what kind of injuries Colleen actually had.

“I owed someone a favor.”

“Claire?” 

Jessica didn’t answer. Knocking Matt out as he fought his little girlfriend hadn’t been fun. 

“Danny will come, Daredevil will help.”

Jessica rolled her eyes. 

“I’m not really the damsel type, no offense.”

“If I wasn’t possibly bleeding internally, I’d probably cut you for insinuating I am.”

Jessica smiled, she had no doubt Colleen was more than capable of taking care of herself. If the way she swung that sword, punched like a hammer, and kicked like a mule was any indication, at least.

“Who the fuck are these people? Who has _ninjas_?”

“They’re called The Hand. They’re a… a group of people, a cult. They have some sort of plan to do… something.”

Jessica snorted, “That’s all you know? An evil cult is up to _something_? How long did you say you’ve been after them?”

“Almost six months, and no that’s not what I said. We’ve been finding their hideouts, all over the world.”

“And what did you find in these hideouts?” Jessica’s breathing was getting tougher, she couldn’t pull in enough air.

“Nothing.” _Great. _“They were all abandoned, but they almost all left their records behind.”__

__That, stunk to Jessica. “How many? Where?”_ _

__“Three in Asia, two in Africa, um, one in South America, a couple in Europe.”_ _

__“And they all looked recently abandoned?” Jessica guessed._ _

__“Yes.” Colleen was starting to follow Jessica’s lead. “Each one, maybe days before we arrived.”_ _

__“Like they knew you were coming?”_ _

__“Shit. I’m so stupid.” Colleen groaned from the ground. “It was all a setup. For Danny.”_ _

___And for Matt too, she knew._ _ _

__“Tell me about this Elektra chick.” From the way she’d been kicking Matt’s ass, she could guess a thing or two._ _

__“I don’t know anything about her. Except she’s Daredevil’s girlfriend, at least she was… before.”_ _

__“Before what?” Now was not the time to be fucking coy._ _

__“Before The Hand.” Colleen answered. She sounded like she was leaving a lot out but Jessica was too tired to keep the questions up._ _

__“These drugs…” Jessica didn’t know what to ask. “They’re really strong. So I need you to hit me.”_ _

__“What?” Colleen barely sounded like she could stand let alone punch, but Jessica couldn’t raise her adrenaline alone._ _

__“I have a habit of burning away chemicals when I’m fighting.”_ _

__“Chemicals?”_ _

__“Mostly alcohol.” Jessica admitted. If Colleen could get her pumped enough she might be able to break the chains. “Just punch me. A lot.”_ _

__

__Luke liked his lawyer. He was a nice guy with an office in a bad neighborhood, and two left feet. Claire had trusted Mr. Murdock, said he could be trusted, _with everything.__ _

__So when his transfer from Atlanta State Prison came in only nine days after being reincarcerated, He was thankful and blessedly relieved._ _

__His sentence had been reduced because of Mr. Murdock, that, along with his transfer back to New York had been more than enough to seal the deal._ _

__Rikers was if nothing else better than Seagate. His reputation had proceeded him well enough that he’d been left alone for the most part if the occasional autograph request could be ignored._ _

__He had library duty on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and a study group with the inmates Saturday mornings._ _

__He was waiting now, he had an end goal. He could still feel the world existing beyond those walls, he never had at Seagate. Those walls had been so much harder to see over. He wasn’t drowning this time around. He knew his life was still waiting for it. Mr. Murdock had asked only that he be patient, which he could do._ _

__He wrote to Claire every week, received a letter in return, hand delivered by his lawyer because that was the only way to assure they could speak freely. He told her about his books, she told him about the world. He read and reread them hundreds of times when the panic rose and he couldn’t breathe. When his memories became too real, when he couldn’t see his hands in the dark, he could remember Claire’s kiss. She wrote about her training, her new friends, her mother._ _

__He'd started learning Spanish in secret, the other inmates would tease him as he stumbled through, but helped nonetheless._ _

__She discovered his guilty pleasure of Kardashian reruns and started watching the show just to tell him what happened. She hated the show, loved the sisters and never missed an episode anymore._ _

__He called Bobby when he could, asked about the shop. It had been remodeled for a second time before opening with three new boys from the neighborhood on the chairs and Bobby at the helm._ _

__He’d been instrumental in his transfer from Atlanta, giving the folder Mariah had left behind to Mr. Murdock. The judge in Georgia had not been particularly pleased having a _slick, fast talking, shark in red glasses_ steal away the states most infamous prisoner, but had nonetheless thrown out the Heroin and Trafficking convictions. Giving him 24 months, with time served for the first escape. _ _

__From what he could find, Mr. Murdock had set this particular precedence, Luke Cage became the first official Empowered U.S. citizen to be released because of his public service record. He would be a free man again in less than two years._ _

__So when he was pulled from the library and shuffled into the private room, the one he usually met Mr. Murdock in, he was not prepared._ _

__The guards let him sit before uncuffing his hands and legs and leaving them alone. Mr. Murdock didn’t look too good this morning, he must have been attacked again the night before, because he had a mottled bruise blooming nicely on his left cheek and a busted lip._ _

__“Mr. Cage, thank you for seeing me. I know this is an unexpected visit.”_ _

__“Of course, Mr. Murdock, unexpected but not unwanted. Is something the matter with Claire?” He asked, noticing his lawyer was not as calm and collected as usual._ _

__Tie loose around his neck, suit slightly wrinkled, breathing uneven. He was trying to look calm, but Luke could see the fraying edges. He seemed to be focusing on Luke unnervingly well for a blind man, eyes without his ever present red shades._ _

__“There’s very little time I’m afraid to explain everything. I’d like you to know, however, it was my choice not to reveal this particular detail about myself, and in no way Did Ms. Temple want to hide this from you.”_ _

__Luke stared, what on Earth was happening. He did not like the man’s tone or the fact that his blind lawyer seemed to be looking him the eye. “What?”_ _

__“I’m Daredevil, Luke.”_ _

__Luke must have misheard, he could have sworn the man just said he was _Daredevil.__ _

__“I'm sorry.”_ _

__“I’m Daredevil, and Claire has been kidnapped.” Mr. Murdock didn’t flinch or crack a smile. He was serious._ _

__“Mariah.”_ _

__“I’m afraid Ms. Dillard had nothing to do with this. Our problem is much bigger.”_ _

__“Are you truly serious?”_ _

__Mr. Murdock, _Daredevil_ , only nodded. _ _

__“So you’re that guy in red, Daredevil, why aren’t you rescuing Claire now?” Luke gripped the table a little harder than he'd meant, his hands shook with the strain to breathe slowly._ _

__“We need your help, Luke.”_ _

__He stopped and stared. “You want me to break out of prison.”_ _

__“No fortunately, cooler heads prevailed. We’ll be joined shortly by Judge Connelly and DA Harvelle to sign your release.”_ _

__“My release?”_ _

__“Yes. Forty minutes from now, you’ll be a free man.”_ _

__“How.” Luke wasn’t a fool enough to think what was happening was a good thing._ _

__“There are benefits to working within the system, as well as out. You and I know that well.”_ _

__“That didn’t answer my question.”_ _

__“I know.” Mr. Murdock stood slowly, his ribs must be hurting him, he retook a seat beside Luke and looked towards the door before it opened. In walked in two men in suits that probably cost more than Luke’s first car. He recognized Harvelle from his transfer, they took a seat opposite them._ _

__“Mr. Cage, thank you for your time this morning. As _Mr. Murdock_ has no doubt explained we have decided to expedite your sentencing and parole dates. In accordance with the sentencing agreement from the Great state of Georgia, any and all future decisions in your sentencing were at the discretion of the City of New York. Therefore we are granting a suspension of your incarceration, without probation.”_ _

__Luke was speechless. Claire was in danger and his lawyer had effectively legally broken him out of jail._ _

__He nodded along as they continued to explain what his release would entail. He would be highly encouraged to check in with the authorities every now and again, was to avoid any and all contact with crime scenes and he would not leave the State._ _

__An hour later Luke stood at the door of a black sedan. Murdock ( _call me Matt, Luke, you might as well_ ) was set to pick him up, after he’d been bussed into the city, which he had taken alone, uncuffed._ _

__The doors opened and out stepped his lawyer and a young kid he didn’t recognize. He had no idea what to think but only one question on his mind._ _

__“Where is Claire?”_ _

__

__Matt was a patient man, he liked to believe at least, as long as the situation called for it. This was not one of those situations._ _

__They left the abandoned building around 4 in the morning, Elektra in Matt’s arms as they moved still in the cover of night. Danny paused as Matt moved to the back with Elektra._ _

__“Um, did you want to drive?” Danny asked, Matt knew he was looking at him in the rearview. Matt shook his head._ _

__Daniel Thomas Rand was a mystery to Matt. He couldn’t make sense of him. His practical naivety was so at odds with his knowledge and seriousness of his title. He’d experienced the power Danny held, and he could say he was humbled by it._ _

__To Matt, who lived in a world lit by warmth and flames, being in the presence of Iron Fist was like standing beside a sun. He lit Matt’s mind’s eye with blinding energy. A human shaped star in Matt’s world, that was until he summoned the Iron Fist._ _

__The light and warmth concentrated into that fist and became an invisible presence too strong for Matt to bear._ _

__He was an honest man as well. After their initial meeting at a complex fire in late March, in which they were able to save all nine people within the building, He followed Danny, for a week._ _

__He was disturbingly ordinary for a billionaire, martial arts master, holy warrior. He was generous in public and private, and painfully honest. Matt didn’t catch a single lie that whole week. The only time his heart sped up was when he saw his girlfriend._ _

__Matt was suspicious of him in the beginning, thoughts of the Chaste, sending spies and assassins to rain down on Hell’s Kitchen. The Hand playing a new game. He doubted Danny even knew of the Chaste but Matt would never blindly trust again._ _

__Contacting Karen to help with the research and investigation into Rand had been an act of desperation. He needed to find something. Rand couldn’t have just fallen from the sky, but as Karen interviewed security personnel, associates, ex employees, anyone who could shed a light on just where Danny had come from, it appeared he had actually walked down from heaven, actual Heaven._ _

__“We can’t just break into an island prison. Ward would kill me. Also I can’t summon the Fist now anyway. I’ve healed myself twice in the same day. I’m burnt, even with meditation.”_ _

__“We have no other choice, if we want the others free, we need Luke.”_ _

__“Luke? Luke Cage?” Danny asked, heart speeding up. Matt could see the smile from a mile away, _suns.__ _

__“You know him?”_ _

__“Well I know of him, he’s dating a friend of mine.”_ _

__“Claire Temple, yes.”_ _

__“Oh God, she’s going to be so happy to see him again.” Danny rejoiced inexplicably. “Oh! I have an idea!”_ _

__They drove to Matt’s apartment, parked in the back and snuck in as covertly as possible._ _

__He laid Elektra on his bed. She was still unconscious, if Matt couldn’t hear her strong beating heart, feel her soft breath, her warmth he would be worried. How could they do this? Who gave them the right to meddle with such powerful forces? Matt's hands shook as he breathed to control himself._ _

__He knelt beside her and took her hand. Nobu had ripped her from him, torn apart some of the few vestiges of hope he had still had. With Elektra dead, Foggy gone, and Karen hating him. It was only matter of time before He’d met Jessica._ _

__It was Jessica who had given him the will to continue fighting. When they met they could not have had more in common if they tried. They were both isolated if not alone and both pushing forward with the mantra of _‘I am worthy of love and forgiveness'_ on repeat in their heads. _ _

__Jessica would spar with him until they were shaking from exhaustion. Her nightmares were a vivid and tiring thing, his flashbacks and disassociations were paralyzing. They could bring each other some balance, he thought as she laid on his chest._ _

__Jessica's power didn’t come from her hands, it came from her soul. She loved so easily, cared so deeply, and fought so vigilantly it was easy to forget her pain. Her fear of control._ _

__He went to her for back up, she came to him for comfort. I worked well enough._ _

__Until now, Jessica was captured because of him, Foggy and Claire too. He was already destroying his life and he hadn’t even rebuilt it yet._ _

__“Hey so I just got off the phone with JMoney, and she got me the addresses. Come on.”_ _

__Danny turned back around and down the stairs. Matt turned to Elektra and gave her a kiss on the temple. He double checked the bindings were tight but not constrictive before he left. She’d be safer here than any where else._ _

__He'd moved from the billboard place after Elektra died. Finding a more secure building just a few blocks north, under an alias. It was the anonimity more than the security system that would assure safety._ _

__They had a judge and a DA to bribe and/or blackmail._ _

__“Let it not be said that Danny Rand can’t do what has to be done.” Danny was pumped, smiling, and Matt was as trying very hard to keep from smiling I return. “You ready?”_ _

__“Lets go get our friends."_ _


	10. Chaos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Foggy and Ward are having the worst date in history.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Violence and Hurt warnings in this one. Sorry y'all.

Foggy was bleeding out. He was cold, but couldn’t shiver, not for a while now. His fingers had gone numb hours ago. He was strapped to a chair in a windowless room, lit sharply with buzzing grey lights. Foggy’s vision was washed out. He couldn’t focus it, couldn’t concentrate, and his head swam.

He had never lost consciousness after the fight. Foggy guessed he wasn’t much of a threat, so they’d never even bothered to knock him out. 

He’d been beaten badly, crushed under the weight of ten men and sliced into with knives on all sides. He’d been dragged inside and he and an unconscious Claire taken up as Colleen, Jessica, and Ward were taken down.

They’d thrown foggy into the chair and strapped him into it across from Claire. She was bruised and beaten too. Face cut, and eye black and swollen, she’d been amazing during the fight. 

She was quick and ferocious as she slashed with her claws, taking down one guy after another. Colleen must have been training her more extensively than he’d realized. She had form he recognized from Matt’s trainings. She was good.

Foggy’s mouth kept filling with blood and he was too weak to even spit anymore. His head was too heavy and he couldn’t remember why he wanted to look up after a while. He could feel a slash in his side that was too big to stop bleeding. It’d been almost six hours and he could feel the cold spreading up from his fingers and toes. 

The stakeout had been disturbingly quiet. Claire and he stashed in the old warehouse across from The Hand, never saw a single soul until a man flew through a window in the second floor. 

“Jessica.” Claire had gasped before dialing Ward and running out, Foggy on her heels.

He’d been so stupid to think chasing after Matt had been a good idea. He was too dumb to realize the trap had been set before they even arrived. 

These people were led by a woman that was hundreds of years old and Foggy thought he would outsmart her. He'd led them all right into the grip of the hand. No one left that grip alive. 

Ward had been taken down with Colleen and Jessica and Foggy had only seen bloody hands as they dragged him away. 

They’d taken down _Jessica_. Foggy knew what she could do from Jeri when he’d begun at HCB. She’d explained he was the only other person in the world beside Pam that she had ever told and her only back up within the firm in case anything ever happened to her.

“Happens?” he’d asked as they say in her locked office. She sat as stoically as ever, but he could see her lips tighten, her hands grip her pen. This is why he had been brought on, he would take Jeri's place. 

He was an assurance that the vigilante community would have protection. Why Jeri would become that, he didn’t know. Couldn’t fathom why someone as ruthless and cunning would put herself in such a precarious position. What was she paying back?

“The world is very different from the one we were born into. There’s different evil, Innocents and the guilty both fall to it. The question is who will stand up next.”

Foggy had taken her statement with all seriousness. He was here because evil needed to be stood against. Ward’s face came unbidden. He had known evil his entire life. Had loved it, had bled for it, been raised by it.

He’d known evil in a way foggy would never really understand. He was an innocent that had been felled by these things. How could Foggy have brought him here, after everything he’d been through, Ward would be slaughtered in a basement like an animal.

His ears felt filled with cotton, but he could hear something in the distance. A voice, _Claire’s_ , saying his name. It sounded infinitely distant, a memory before Foggy could hear it.

He couldn’t do more than lift his eyes. She was awake. She was saying something too quickly to catch. She looked scared. He wished he could say something. A goodbye, last words, a knock knock joke, anything she could tell his family. 

His family would never know, they couldn’t. His death would be blamed on a mugging gone wrong, like Elektra’s had been. Maybe he would just be a missing person. Never seen, never found, he could spare his family a funeral. 

Anna would hate him, call him a whiny brat like when they were kids. Her baby was due in January, a girl he remembered her telling him last week. She’d sounded scared shitless and blissful at the same time. She would, could, carry on after.

His father still had the hardware store, Donna would have a new grand daughter. They would mourn him, but he knew God would let them move forward.

He thought of Matt. He shouldn’t have left him, should have believed in his best friend instead of abandoning him when he needed him most. Foggy’s eyes spilled over. Foggy would miss his smile, his rich warm laughter. Matt deserved better than Foggy, always had. He deserved someone he never had to hide from, to lie to. His Matty deserved peace, with Foggy dead, he knew that would never happen.

The lights were dimming, no, that wasn’t it. _He_ was dimming. He didn’t feel cold anymore, his breath came easier, he felt relief. Looking up with what little will he had left he saw Claire struggling wildly against her ropes, she was yelling, he couldn’t hear her anything anymore.

“ _I’m sorry, Claire… Tell Matt… to smile again… for me_.”

 

When Ward woke up he was laying on the ground. His head pounded. For a moment after he opened his eyes he couldn’t remember where he was, or why he wasn’t supposed to be there. For that moment he thought he had relapsed, binged and blacked out. Stumbled into some building and blacked out.

Until he didn’t. He shot up with a gasp. His ribs were rubble, which made it hard to breathe as his eyes took in the room frantically. He was alone. 

He wasn’t tied so he stood as carefully as possible. His legs shook and his arms barely lifted him up as he leaned against the wall but he stood nonetheless. 

He needed to find the others, if he had been kept alive, the others who actually mattered had to have been too. The door was a heavy steel thing, locked from the other side. 

“Hello! Hey assholes!” he yelled. He need to get out of this place. Danny could still be here. If he hadn’t run he’d be the first one they’d kill. He pounded on the door. “You hear me! You fucks come finish the job, you goddamn cowards!”

The room had no windows, he didn’t know if he’d been out for an hour or twelve. He slammed his shoulder against the door and only managed to knock himself down. 

The door unlocked, and swung open. Ward made to rush whoever was coming in but was stopped, a hand around his throat, before he was tossed back like a sack of potatoes.

The man who walked in wore black armor similar to Daredevil’s, he had a shaved head and cruel sneer on his face. “Stop your hollering.”

“Fuck you!” Ward spit out, rushing the man a second time. He did little more than step aside, grabbing Ward by the hair and slamming him onto the ground.

“Americans, you covet your hair too much. Always primping it mirrors, like lazy cats.”

“Where is Danny?” Ward asked, standing as the man stared disgustedly.

“He ran. The great Iron Fist ran like coward he is.” 

This man knew Danny. “Who are you?”

He smiled, looked over Ward as if he were less than a bug, an inconvenience at the most. “My name is Davos.”

Ward’s eyes widened, that couldn’t be right. Danny had spoken about Davos, hundreds of times. Stories of K'un-Lun, the Monastery, pranks and training, all with Davos by Danny’s side. He was Danny’s best friend. 

“You betrayed him. To the Hand.”

“A trait you and I share.” Davos spit back, hands balled angrily. “Not that loyalty means much to our little brother-“

“He is not your Brother!” Ward yelled. “Everything I did was because of you!”

Davos didn’t react with more than a sneer. “Your life was over the day Daniel Rand was born. As was mine.”

Ward looked around, he would never be able to get around Davos, even if Ward wasn’t beat to complete shit. Davos saw his thoughts and smiled wickedly. “You wish to escape?” He stepped from in front of the door, presented it grandly.

Ward knew it was a trick but he couldn’t risk losing even this hopeless opportunity, he rushed the door.

Davos made no move to stop him, only stared. Ward pulled the heavy door and was frozen at what waited for him.

Joy, held tightly against a man’s front, shining blade held to her neck. Eyes red and scared. 

“Ward, I’m sorry.” Her eyes spilled over with tears.

This couldn’t be; Joy was safe. Joy was in China. This was a trick, it had to be. 

Ward backed back into the room, when the man dragged Joy in. The blade was sharp enough that she was already bleeding. 

“How ironic that you speak of betrayal to me, when it’s your beautiful little sister that planned this whole thing. The wild goose chase she encouraged him to take, the warning she gave us on his movements, it was all her.” Davos spoke from behind Ward. “She’s quite brilliant, really.”

Ward saw it in Joy’s eyes, Davos wasn’t lying. She had betrayed Danny, betrayed him. “Why?” was all he could ask. They forced her, threatened Ward’s life, blackmailed her, something.

“Yes, Joy, why did you betray the Iron Fist?” Davos asked mockingly.

“Shut Up!” Ward yelled before turning back to his sister. “Why Joy, just tell me why, we’ll explain it to Danny together, after he beats the shit out of this bald fucker. Just tell me.”

She said nothing. Ward stared disbelieving. 

“If I may,” Davos spoke again, he moved to stand beside Joy. Ward didn’t dare make a move, not with that blade already pressing into Joy’s throat. The man pulled a small recorder from his pocket, and pushed play.

_”It seems the boy you knew died that day. Becoming the Iron Fist changed him.”_

_“Maybe.”_ It was Joy’s voice. She gave a weak sob.

_”He destroys everything he touches. Isn’t it true your world fell apart after his return?”_

_“Things changed for me.”_

_“And you know if you have any hope of returning to your life he must be removed.”_

_“Removed?”_

_“Killed. I can help you with that.”_

_“…I’m listening.”_

_“When he dies the power he possesses, that possesses him, will return to K’un-Lun. It will be free for the truly worthy.”_

_“Truly worthy, you mean you?”_

_“If Shao Lao wills it.”_

_“He won’t go down easy. Danny is persistent.”_

_“We have a weapon, we only need time. Can you provide that?”_

_“I will, as long as you can assure me something.”_

_“Anything.”_

_“When you have him, when he kneels before you, when you see the fear in his eyes…”_

_“Yes?”_

_“Tell him he deserves this.”_

“There was no need to even threaten your life. All I had to offer her was an opportunity. Same as Harold, same as you. So tell me, what do the Meachums know of betrayal and loyalty?”

Joy looked into his eyes, tears falling freely, he wanted more than anything to reach out to her. Comfort his baby sister, the way he had his whole life.

“I’m sorry, Ward.” She whispered. He nodded and smiled at her.

“It’s okay. He’ll forgive you, He’ll forgive us.”

She sobbed harder then. Hands tight and shaking at her sides.

“I’m afraid he won’t have that chance.” Davos spoke, nodding to the man holding Joy.

“No!” Ward yelled, running to his sister. 

Davos spun before sending him flying with a kick to the chest. He landed hard. Joy’s scream chilled his blood, heart frozen he looked up. The man had Joy on her knees, she closed her eyes, Ward recognized the prayer she mouthed. His mother’s prayer.

The door exploded off its hinges and flew across the room, slamming violently against the wall. 

Jessica stood on the other side, face furious and hands bloody. She moved faster than Ward could track, she flew to the man holding Joy, snapping his arm in half before throwing against the wall.

Davos moved foolishly to attack. Jessica didn’t even flinch at his punches. She was immovable and terrifying as she gripped him by the neck, quick as a snake, and raised him a foot in the air. She was going to kill him.

“No! Don’t kill him!” She looked over to Ward, who had rushed to Joy and taken her into his arms. “Please.”

She lowered him and looked into his terrified eyes, he was turning purple. She threw him instead, he slammed against a wall and crumpled. She breathed heavily.

“The others.” Jessica asked into the shocked silence. 

“We woke up alone.” Ward said quickly, Joy looked up at him confusedly. “Were you alone?” 

“Colleen’s hidden downstairs. She’s hurt and weak. Come on.” Jessica left the room.

Ward moved quickly to Davos, patting down his pockets, and pulling the recorder out. 

“Ward what-“

He threw it on the ground and crushed it under his boot. “When else did you speak to him?”

“That was the only time,” her voice warbled, she wasn’t shock so her nerves were making her shake. 

“Lets go.”

“Ward, I-“

“Shut up. They took you from China. Do you hear me? They took you from your hotel and flew you here, to use against Danny. Do you understand?”

Her eyes were scared, and confused but she nodded.

He followed Jessica.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about that. 
> 
> Last chapter coming up next, it's gonna be kinda huge. Then an epilogue.


	11. Resurgence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Defenders are assembled and a Miracle saves Foggy and Ward's date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy moly it has been months! I am so sorry. Have a nice read and hopefully it does something for y'all. Lol. Thank you for reading and comments equal love yo.

Danny had lived in a world of light. A place in which even the air had divinity: a spirit and presence that existed in all things and gave every moment a beautiful magnificence. 

The waters were sweet and ever-cool and the flowers burst in blooming grace every morning. It had been a celestial paradise, incomparable to any earthly place. 

And Danny had sworn to protect it for all eternity. He had promised on his very soul that his life and death would be in service to K'un-Lun and all other Heavenly Cities.

Davos had been wrong when he said the Iron Fist had betrayed that oath. The Iron Fist was fulfilling his destiny right here, right now. The heavenly bodies had closed because he wasn’t needed in K’un-Lun. He was needed right here at the frontline of the war. He stood beside powerful allies against a force that threatened the balance of the universe itself and he would fight now, ‘til his last breath, with all that he was, both Daniel Thomas Rand and The Living Weapon Iron Fist, blessed of Shou-Lao and Warrior of His Light.

Gao had brought all she had to this place. Every faction and clan in her control descended upon the three men who stormed from the front door. They had no reasonable plan. They knew the battle would be the greatest either had ever faced alone, but not one moment of hesitation flew by them as they raided the building. 

Danny carried the light of Shou-Lao as a master of it. With all he had on the line, he had no doubt in his heart, and in that knowledge he was in absolute The Iron Fist again. 

His hands were flaming comets as he brought up the back. Their ascent was held back by the dozens of men raining down on them. Their blades shattered like spun sugar as he struck and punched in heavenly fury. 

Luke was a powerhouse. Bullets bouncing off of him like rain drops. He was immovable and as strong as stone. His punches sent two or three men flying back at a time. He was slower than the many masked men but where they were wind, he was a living mountain. 

Daredevil was a vicious fighter. Cruel strikes that took his opponents down hard and fast. He was lightning quick, and hit like a train. Single kicks taking down Gao’s men, punches like snake strikes: he was terrifying. Danny followed in their wake, finishing the men off as well as he could as the weakest. Still he was a living light that struck like a meteor.

They reached the second floor stairwell. Danny was only just beginning to lose himself to the blood blindness of battle when a scream ripped through the echoing stair well. 

Daredevil had stopped in the middle of the fray and the masked men jumped to take up the advantage. Danny covered Daredevil as Luke yelled to keep him protected. The stairwell was flush with Gao's men and Danny and Luke would be overrun eventually if not for Jessica’s arrival. Falling from the floor above like an avenging angel. Face furious as she tore three men off of Danny and threw them away like trash, over the railing.

“Get up, Curly Cue.” She was bloodied and still hurt but her eyes were bright and wild. She was frankly terrifying in an already terrifying place. “Murdock! Get up!”

She rushed to Daredevil and lifted him. He stared blankly ahead until she slapped him. He said something Danny couldn’t hear over the throng of men.

Danny held off the masked men, trying to overrun them again. 

Whatever moment Daredevil and Jessica had, brought him alive again and with a battlecry Daredevil became the demon he was named for. 

Luke took up his ascent again, realizing Jessica had joined the fight. It was when they reached the third floor that Daredevil and Jessica plowed through the throng and down the hallway. Luke caught up and took Matt's place. 

Luke and Jessica were brutal. Daredevil and himself struck with lightning quick punches and vicious kicks. Taking down the masked and unmasked men in droves. Danny's hands shined like comets and the Fist flooded with power. He needed to find Colleen and his abilities crystallized to find her with wicked focus. They reached the door and before Luke or Jessica could lift a fist Danny flew through them and slammed it with a cry. It swung violently open.

It was a brightly lit room and Danny froze at the scene. Ward, Claire, and _Joy_. All kneeling beside a bloody and beaten Foggy.

Luke came in last and turned to slam the heavy steel door closed holding off the dozens of killers just on the other side. 

“No!” Daredevil screamed as he collapsed beside Foggy.

Ward cradled the man in his arms as he sobbed violently. His face was a flushed miserable thing, but it was Matt’s yell that chilled his spine. Foggy was dead.

Claire ran to a silent Luke. He gripped her tight and spun to speak softly and quickly into her ears. She sobbed into his chest, trembling and obviously afraid. She had seen her friend die.

“ _Danny_.” Colleen sat on a chair towards the back. Her eyes were red and Danny could see her hands shaking. He rushed to her.

“Get the hell away!” Ward yelled as he gripped a limp Foggy. Matt sat frozen as he stared blankly away. It was Jessica who Ward was yelling at. She looked angry.

She had tried to pick him up. “We have to keep moving. There’s too many, the door won’t hold.” As it was the door was rattling, locks barely holding.

Colleen gripped his hand tightly, she was breathing heavily gripping her side. It was her gasp that was worrying, her ribs, at least one must be broken. “ _Danny, he… he gave-_ ”

“Sshh, Colleen it’s okay, you’re hur-“

“No! He needs you.”

“…what?”

“This is what Gao wanted… to hide. She's like you… a champion.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“She can't know what she knows… not without being there, K’un-Lun. It’s why she’s afraid of you… how she gave Elektra her power- to stop you. She’s an immortal weapon. From one of the cities”

Danny stared in awe. She was right. Gao was a betrayer to one of the other six Holy Cities.

“She ca-can bring people back.” Colleen stuttered.

_Harold, Elektra, Matt’s assassin Nobu_. She had used the Heavenly gift in service of The Hand. Bastardized her gifts, perverted them for the work of K'un-Lun's greatest enemy.

Colleen was in pain. Her face was creased and sweating, but she smiled still. As beautifully and arresting as the first time. She gripped his hand and squeezed it. 

He understood then. He smiled tiredly, kissing Colleen softly on her lips and whispered. _”I love you, Colleen. I love you so much.”_

She smiled tiredly at him, tears in her eyes. Colleen had saved him. Believed in him when no one else would. She had been his saving grace, and seeing her now, like this, was killing him. He knew what he had to do, but that didn’t make turning from her any easier. 

She rolled her eyes at his declaration of love, like she always did. But she did squeeze his hand again, like she always did. 

He knew how she felt, and he knew why, even now, she couldn’t say it. He didn’t need to hear it. They’d been proving their love for each other for months now, in every mission. In every fight. In every sexually charged battle where they collapsed together afterwards and lost themselves in each other. Finding a primal, primitive comfort that neither had ever had, or needed before.

They were both raised to fight in a war that was never their own, and now that they had fought for each other they knew what it all meant. Why they became what they became. How beautifully chaotic, he thought.

He was weak, tired, wounded. He turned to Ward and Daredevil. “Move.”

“Get away, Danny.” Ward rasped out.

“Ward.” Danny knelt and took Ward’s shaking hand. “I know what I have to do. Let go.”

Daredevil reached out to Foggy but stopped just inches free. 

“Please, Ward.”

Ward looked shaken and terrified as he let Foggy be taken from him. Collapsing against Joy and taking a shuddering breath. 

Foggy was cold and limp. Danny shook with grief. This was why Danny was here. On this plane, in this world. He was a protector. His gift was Light, and in that light, no dark could stand. Even the blackness of death. He took a breath, to center, a second to escape this realm, and a third to pull his focus.

_This is your test._

_Lei-Kung? I beg your forgiveness._

_You cannot beg from fate. Your path is yours to choose. That has always been true._

_But I left. I abandoned my guard. I abandoned my destiny._

_One can sooner reverse a river’s course before he can abandon his destiny. Your destiny is here. Is this._

_If I bring him back, What will I become? Who will I be?_

_Not even a holy monk knows everything Daniel._

_Will I survive?_

_You will **be**. That is all we can know. _

Danny's hands exploded in blinding light. He felt the void of warmth in Foggy’s being. His energies had gone and with them his soul.

Hands on Foggy’s chest, he bowed over him and focused.

It clicked. The Iron Fist's light found the void and rushed it with power. Foggy was lit from within, body arching violently off the ground as the room shook with the force coming from both. 

Balance was key here, he felt his wounds opening as Foggy’s healed. Chest seizing, heart stuttering as Foggy’s beat again. Breath burning away in his lungs as Foggy breathed life again. 

The connection between the two was a broken dam. His life force was pouring into Foggy and there was no way to stop. It would simply need to balance. Bring them both to the brink of death but still breathing.

And it did. When Foggy took his second breath, and his heartbeat beat under Danny’s palms, the flow curbed. The connection between the two men’s souls was a gravitational dance visible only in the Nether, a moon pulling and pushing of Foggy’s spiritual tides.

They were balanced.

The Iron Fist extinguished before Danny lost consciousness. 

_He had done it. Ward would be so happy._

 

***

Foggy Nelson was an amazing man. In every aspect he was truly good. His kindness was endless. His compassion had carried Matt hundreds of times over the years. He was an oasis of light in Matt’s life, guiding him, warming him. Comforting Matt when the nightmares spilled into their dorm, after Elektra, and even on his father’s birthday.

And Matt had lied to him from the day they met. Foggy's trust was a precious gift that he gave so freely it sometimes scared Matt for him. His heart was an open chest and he was always on the wrong end of heartache. 

When Foggy came into his life, it was a beginning Matt hadn’t known he was in desperate need of. Matt’s existence, until he became roommates with Foggy, was a cold calculated thing. He had his training, his plan for school and his career. He knew what he thought he wanted, until Foggy.

His laughter and love opened the world to Matt again. He saw the difference one man could make when he looked to Foggy. It made Matt want to be a better man and it drove him forward in a way nothing else had, not even Stick’s training and mentorship.

Where Foggy was an anchor that gave him the will to focus on doing good for the sake of good, Elektra had been the wind in his sails. She showed him a yearning for freedom he didn’t realize he had. For all her chaos, and Foggy’s peace, he had repaid them both by costing them their lives.

_Tell Matt to smile again, for me._

Foggy’s last breath was the single worst sound he had ever heard. It was a gasping, ragged inhale, and an empty wisp of an exhale. The final beat of his heart was a sluggish thump and nothing else.

“NO!” Matt froze in the stairwell, mid-punch. His hand dropped limply, all fight and breath leaving him at once. The world froze.

Foggy was dead. The only person left, the only soul Matt had left to live for, was gone from this Earth.. and it was because of him. 

The world stopped spinning. There was no sound, no feeling, there was nothing left of him with Foggy gone. He had had the last piece of Matt’s soul, and now there was nothing left.

Someone shook him from his oblivion and screamed in his face. Only that didn’t make any sense. With Foggy gone how could the world be, still? How could the city continue? If good men could disappear from the world, in the blink of an eye, then what would ever be the point of fighting for it anymore?

“ _Come on, Matt. He’s upstairs we have to go get him, can you hear me Matty?_ ”

_Jessica._

“Foggy.” He rasped out.

“Let’s go get him.” She answered. The sounds of the world flooded his head again and he was once again in the middle of a fight. Fighters in masks, hoods, and military armor; Danny and Luke were holding them off and back. 

With a snarling yell, he jumped back into the fray, and not one man could stand against him. Matt let loose with everything he had, with everything he was. He was a demon incarnate then. 

Elektra had always known his true potential. She had seen the animal he really was, even when he turned a blind eye to that part of himself. She had always wanted to unleash him on the world just to watch him burn it down. His fury was a scorching flame of vengeance as he mowed down Gao's men. 

He slammed the fighters against walls and floors. He broke bones, shattered skulls, snapped legs in two until they reached the third floor. He and Jessica led the charge through the dark narrow hallway and slammed the blockade.

Luke and Jessica led after that, their strength and near impenetrable skin making them an unstoppable force. Matt followed and struck like a machine. He struck with impeccably precise punches, finding fragile or cracked bones to strike at and take them down immediately.

Danny was a comet in his mind's eye. Fists blazing with an avenging light. They came at the boy in droves, but he spun and flew through the hallway like living wind. He was absolutely masterful in Kung Fu, Matt knew if Stick ever came across him, the old fool would be as Machiavellian as possible to possess and wield that power.

As they neared the end of the hallway, they made for a door made of steel, two inches thick with reinforced frame. Foggy was behind that door.

They were unstoppable and with a scream Danny struck the door to bring it down. With a flying arch he swung down to the spot and broke the door.

Foggy _was_ in Ward’s arms as the man sobbed, body shaking as he leaned over Foggy. The man’s heart was a rapping boom in his chest. 

He collapsed beside them but didn’t move to reach out. He couldn’t bear it. Foggy’s heart was still, and Matt’s eyes spilled over again. Foggy wasn’t breathing. He had taken his last breath and Matt hadn’t been there.

They’d wasted too much time, Matt should have come back alone with or without Iron Fist.

God, or the universe, or destiny, had gifted him with Elektra again, only to take Foggy. It couldn’t be that cruel. God wasn’t a cruel being, he was of Mercy. He had to be.

Matt bowed his head and begun to pray. 

_Saints of God, come to his aid._

_Come to meet him, Angels of the Lord._

The day Matt met Foggy was the day he was doomed. He should have run. He should have walked back out of that dorm room and never turned back. Should have gone to the administration and accepted the single they had offered him. 

Foggy could have been anything. He was always going to be a great man, it was inevitable. He had a way with the world. He understood it in a way Matt never could. For all of Matt’s observational skills, it was Foggy who always saw the most. He saw suffering and was a man committed to stopping that. 

If Matt had been a better man, he would have left long before it was too late. If he had been a better man, like Ward had been.

Matt knew well how much Ward had wanted Foggy all those years ago,. It was a neon sign blazing with stuttered breaths, hidden smiles and quiet chuckles well away from knowing ears. Ward had fallen for Foggy as easily as Matt had. 

Matt had been an unbelievable fool. He could have had him. Could have taken what Foggy offered freely and sincerely. Foggy had wanted more with Matt and he had been too self hating and self righteous to accept it. 

Even knowing how unworthy the Devil was to stand in such a wonderful light as Foggy’s, he could see the life he could have had with crystal clarity. One where he fought for justice beside the man he loved most in the world. He could have known peace, could have kissed Foggy's smiling lips in the morning, could have had love greater than any good he would ever see now.

Danny's voice broke the stricken sobs. “Move,” he said, making his purposeful way to the kneeling men. His heart racing but voice steady.

“Danny don't-” Ward began.

“Ward, it's okay,” Danny spoke softly, “I know what I have to do. Please.”

Ward gave a small breath of fear that sounded louder in the silence. Danny took Foggy and laid him down carefully. His telltale golden aura gathering like a storm into his hands. 

Laying glowing hands on Foggy's still chest, Matt's breath caught as the rush of energy burst from the man. A nova of ensouled power shattered the air, making it crackle and burn to Matt's pristine senses. 

Foggy's body arched off the ground, alighting with a holy light and breathing again. His beautiful heart took a strong beat and another, Matt heard a rush of wind through the howling flow of chi and knew Foggy had taken a breath. 

Danny had brought Foggy back. Pulled him from the dark with his will and heavenly gifts. Just as Gao had brought Elektra back with her twisted sorcery. He could barely comprehend what he had just experienced. A godsent miracle. 

Danny's light extinguished almost completely from Matt's mind's eye and with a small relieved sound he collapsed. Ward scrambled to catch him as Matt moved to Foggy. 

“Oh god, Foggy, can you hear me? Foggy?” Matt whispered desperately. He took Foggy into his lap and carded his now ungloved fingers through Foggy's hair. It was a beautiful, unforgettable moment, one Matt would cherish forever, when Foggy answered.

“Matty, I'm, is this heaven?” His voice was quiet and hoarse, but it brought tears to Matt's eyes to hear. 

“With me here? Afraid not buddy.” Matt husked back. He could feel the rush of love as he leaned closer in. Wanting to taste those perfect lips, breathe the same breath if only once, if only for a moment. 

“Foggy.” Ward called. He knelt beside a sitting Iron Fist but looked at Foggy. Matt could hear the racing rap in Ward's chest, the raw vulnerability in the warble of his voice. Foggy turned to the sound, and in a moment held his breath as he must have caught sight of Ward. His heart stuttered identically. 

“Jeez, Mr. Meachum, we sure do have this date thing down.”

Ward shot to Foggy's side and pulled the man into a crushing kiss. Foggy's breath caught and Matt sensed, unfortunately, his immediate reciprocation. He caught a whispered apology from Ward, and a tired “shut up” from Foggy. Matt turned away then. 

He shouldn't be intruding. He must be mad. 

The sound beyond the door vanished with a sudden heaviness. The hallway was empty of men conscious or otherwise. Matt scanned the building with his limited focus and found the floors above and beyond completely abandoned.

“They've gone,” he said to the room.

“How many?” Jessica asked. Standing beside the steel door. 

“All of them.” 

“Is Gao still here? Was she ever here?” Danny rasped out, now in the arms of Ms. Meachum, whose own heart raced wildly.

Matt extended his awareness as far as possible, allowing every inch of the giant complex to invade his head. He heard dripping water six floors down, groaning beams and breezes carrying through dozens of shattered windows. No breath or heartbeat.

“If she was, she's gone now.” 

“She left? Why?” Jessica asked. 

“She was afraid.” It was Colleen that spoke, she stood beside them, holding her side and breathing pained, but she continued, “Danny knows his gifts now. He's embraced his mantle.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Jessica snarked, pulling the door open and surveying the hall.

“It means we have a weapon greater than any of hers.” Matt answered, realizing the gravity of the obvious. 

“Danny's not a weapon! He's a goddamn human being.” Ward raised his voice angrily. 

“Ward-”

“No! This isn't about Danny. This entire mess happened because the Devil of Hell's Kitchen couldn't keep his so called heroic duty from hurting his supposed friends. And for what? Elektra? A psychotic assassin in league with The Hand? You’re nothing but a criminal with absolutely no regard of the law or the lives of innocent people!”

“Ward!” Danny yelled, interrupting the tirade. The room was quiet, frozen with tension as everyone held their breath for Matt's response. 

Instead Matt did nothing. Focused completely on Foggy, waiting for a sentiment of support, but when the silence stretched he understood. In the end, it was obvious Ward was right. Matt was just selfish enough to want that forgiveness, even now.

“We have to go. If she did leave, Gao has a habit of destroying evidence.” Colleen said, kneeling and helping Joy get Danny to his feet. Foggy and Ward followed leaving with a final heavy somberness. Claire and Luke moved to Foggy to help and as a group they left the room. Jessica looked back, last to leave the room. She waited.

“I’m- I'm sorry.” Matt said to her.

“I know. Let's go.” She answered. She quietly walked to him, took his hand and squeezed. “Let's make this right.”

Matt followed her, silently vowing to do just that.

**Author's Note:**

> TBC oooOoHhh!
> 
> I'm [Emanationman](http://emanationman.tumblr.com) on Tumblr too! Come say hi!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [A New Day](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10504635) by [imladrissun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/imladrissun/pseuds/imladrissun)




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